Wednesday, 21 June 2023 11:36
Trial of Sexual Offences
The Law Commission is tasked with keeping the law under review and this week presented a consultation paper discussing significant reforms to the trial of sexual offences, including rape. Why was the review carried out? In its End-to-End Rape Review, the Government looked at the decline in conviction rates since 2016 – one outcome was its request to the Law Commission to examine the law, guidance, practice, and procedure in sexual offences prosecutions. The Commission stated: 'There are many complex reasons for the decline in conviction rates and this is not our focus. Instead, our focus is on how evidence…
Wednesday, 21 June 2023 11:26
Court of Appeal Issues Further Guidance on Sentencing of Young People
The Sentencing of young persons is one of the most complex judicial exercises, which must recognise the substantial differences between child and adult offending, particularly where an offender before the court has just reached majority age. Research has repeatedly emphasised the pace of developmental milestones and often suggests that full maturity may only be reached after a person is 25 years of age. This challenges the general sentencing orthodoxy, which previously indicated that adults were always fully culpable for their actions. In a recent case, the Court of Appeal cautioned against simply reaching for an adult sentencing guideline and making…
Friday, 16 June 2023 11:52
Pre-sentence Reports: Do they make a difference?
A pre-sentence report is advice given to the court following the facts of the case, expert risks and needs assessments, including an independent sentencing proposal and additional relevant information. They must be as objective as possible and exist to assist the judiciary with sentencing. The number of pre-sentence reports written in England and Wales has decreased in recent years – from 211,494 in 2010 to 103,004 in 2019. This was an area of concern in the 2020 white paper, A Smarter Approach to Sentencing, which stated that “The purpose of a pre-sentence report (PSR) is to facilitate the administration of…
Friday, 16 June 2023 11:49
Driving Offences - New Sentencing Guidelines
The Sentencing Council has published 12 new and revised sentencing guidelines for offenders convicted of motoring offences in England and Wales. The new and revised guidelines, which apply to adults only, will come into effect on 1 July 2023. The changes include updated versions of six current guidelines that were published in 2008 and reflect new maximum sentences for some of the offences, including causing death by dangerous driving and causing death by careless driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. They have also published five new guidelines for offences created since the current guidelines were published. They…
Friday, 09 June 2023 11:34
Policing - A Crisis of Confidence?
Many newspapers this week ran a headline in these or similar terms: 'Trust in police hanging by a thread, inspectorate says.' The impetus for this kind of comment was a damning report published by the Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Andy Cooke. In the State of Policing 2022, HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary Andy Cooke has said: the police need to prioritise the issues that matter most to the public; forces are failing to get the basics right in investigation and responding to the public, and they need to concentrate on effective neighbourhood policing; and critical elements of the police service’s…
Monday, 05 June 2023 15:11
Prison Overcrowding - A Get Out of Jail Free Card?
On 3 March 2023, the Court of Appeal handed down a judgment in the case of Arie Ali. The case proved to be of some interest due to this remark made by Lord Justice Edis: 'On 24 February 2023, the Deputy Prime Minister wrote to the Lord Chief Justice saying:- "You will appreciate that operating very close to prison capacity will have consequences for the conditions in which prisoners are held. More of them will be in crowded conditions while in custody, have reduced access to rehabilitative programmes, as well as being further away from home (affecting the ability for…
Wednesday, 31 May 2023 13:02
Police Powers & The Common Law
When considering police powers, particularly concerning search and seizure of property, we think first of powers derived from statute, which leads us to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. On occasion, however, statute does not provide police with effective powers, and the question arises as to whether their actions will be lawful if they act outside of a statutory framework. The answer to this was provided as long ago as 1969 when the Court of Appeal (Civil Division) commented: 'We have to consider, on the one hand, the freedom of the individual. His privacy and his possessions are not…
Thursday, 25 May 2023 16:31
"Encouraging serious self-harm" to become a criminal offence
Ipsos polling shows that more than 2 in 3 (67 %) of UK adults are worried about seeing content promoting or advocating self-harm while online. In 2021 the Law Commission recommended that individuals responsible for encouraging or assisting serious self-harm should be better held to account by criminal law. It is argued that once the sharing of posts encouraging self-harm is criminalised, social media companies will have to remove and limit people’s exposure to material that deliberately encourages somebody to injure themselves. This includes posts, videos, images and other messages that encourage, for example, the self-infliction of significant wounds. As…
Thursday, 25 May 2023 16:31
"Encouraging serious self-harm" to become a criminal offence
Ipsos polling shows that more than 2 in 3 (67 %) of UK adults are worried about seeing content promoting or advocating self-harm while online. In 2021 the Law Commission recommended that individuals responsible for encouraging or assisting serious self-harm should be better held to account by criminal law. It is argued that once the sharing of posts encouraging self-harm is criminalised, social media companies will have to remove and limit people’s exposure to material that deliberately encourages somebody to injure themselves. This includes posts, videos, images and other messages that encourage, for example, the self-infliction of significant wounds. As…
Friday, 19 May 2023 11:28
An Offence of "Slow Walking"?
It has been reported that Police in England and Wales are to be given new powers to tackle "disruptive" slow walking used by protesters to block roads. The new legislation would give officers more leeway to intervene when protesters attempt to block roads with slow marching. Just Stop Oil, Insulate Britain and Extinction Rebellion are among the groups to have used the tactic. The government says the new law is required because the police need more clarity on when their existing powers can be used. BJ Harrington, the National Police Chiefs' Council lead for public order and public safety, said:…
Wednesday, 17 May 2023 11:47
New Public Order Laws
Current legislation to manage protests provides predominantly for powers to counter behaviours at protests which are violent or distressing to the public. These powers include those under the Public Order Act 1986 (the “1986 Act”) which provides the police with powers to manage public processions and assemblies, including protests. Sections 12 and 14 of the 1986 Act (as amended by the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022) allow the police to impose any type of condition on a public procession or public assembly necessary to prevent: significant impact on persons or serious disruption to the activities of an organisation…
Tuesday, 16 May 2023 11:30
Female Offender Strategy
The government has set out proposals to reduce women’s offending over the period of the 2022–25. This Delivery Plan sets out how Government will deliver four key priorities to reduce women’s offending over the next three years. These are: Fewer women entering the justice system and reoffending Fewer women serving short custodial sentences with a greater proportion managed successfully in the community Better outcomes for women in custody Protecting the public through better outcomes for women on release
Monday, 15 May 2023 16:54
Blood test for sleepy drivers could pave way for prosecutions
A blood test to measure whether a driver who has caused an accident was impaired by lack of sleep could be available within two years, making it easier to legislate against drowsy drivers or their employers.
Thursday, 11 May 2023 10:22
Animal Cruelty - New Sentencing Guidelines
Updated sentencing guidelines for animal cruelty offences that reflect changes introduced by the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act 2021, were published today by the Sentencing Council following consultation. For the first time, a new ‘Animal cruelty’ guideline gives judges and magistrates in England and Wales guidance for sentencing the most serious animal cruelty offences, including causing unnecessary suffering, tail docking and animal fighting. The Council developed the guideline after the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act 2021 increased the maximum penalty for these offences from six months to five years’ custody. A second guideline also published today, ‘Failure to ensure animal welfare’, revises…