Issue 370  2nd November 2024

Chancellor Rachel Reeves today pledged to ‘begin to repair the justice system’ as she announced hefty real-terms spending increases for the next two years. The Ministry of Justice’s day-to-day budget (known as the Resource Departmental Expenditure Limit) will climb from £10.4bn in 2023-24 to £11bn this year, and is forecast to rise to £11.8bn in 2025-26. This amounts to average annual real-terms growth of 4.3% from 2023-24 to 2025-26, according to the Autumn Budget Report laid before the Commons.

The rise in capital spending is larger still, as the MoJ scrambles to supply more prison places. The capital DEL will rise from £1.5bn in 2023-24 to £1.8bn this year and £2bn in 2025-26. This amounts to an average real-terms increase of 14.9% from 2023-24 to 2025-26. Total spending overall will rise from £11.9bn in 2023-24 to £12.7bn this year and £13.8bn in 2025-26...

Funding for the Law Officers’ Department, which finances criminal prosecution services, provides total funding of £1.1bn in 2025-26. This is equivalent to an annual real terms increase of 7.5% over this financial year and the next...

Prisoners serving controversial indeterminate sentences were given minimum terms of less than six months but have remained in jail for at least 16 years, newly released data shows. A total of five inmates serving sentences known as imprisonment for public protection (IPP) in England and Wales were handed tariffs less than six months, Ministry of Justice (MoJ) data shows. A further 15 prisoners also serving IPP sentences were given tariffs of between six months and a year, while another 47 received tariffs of between a year and 18 months. None have been released from jail. A tariff is the minimum amount of time that a prisoner must spend in jail.

Campaigners said the MoJ figures, which emerged in a parliamentary question, were “horrendous” and meant that the five people who might have been released after a few weeks may have served nearly two decades in prison. Ungripp, a campaign group that represents families of prisoners serving IPP sentences, said its members were shocked to hear that some people still in jail had been given tariffs of less than six months...

Around 1,800 rehabilitated offenders still under indefinite probation oversight for abolished Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences, years after completing their prison terms, will have this supervision lifted today (1 November 2024)...

Reforms mean IPP offenders who were released from custody at least 5 years ago but not sent back to prison in the last 2 years will have their licences automatically terminated. IPP sentences were introduced in 2005 but abolished in 2012 as they were used inconsistently and more broadly than anticipated. Offenders on these indefinite sentences have had to wait at least 10 years after their initial release for the Parole Board to consider terminating their licence. With no guarantee that their sentence would end, they could be subject to supervision for their whole lives.

Further changes, effective from 1 February 2025, will cut the eligibility period for the Parole Board to consider ending licences from 10 years after first release to 3. This will make an additional 600 former offenders eligible to have their licenses ended...

New data which shows around one in four people has a criminal record has led to increased calls for fairer checks on criminal records by employers. On Monday the Ministry of Justice released its estimate of the number of individuals of working age with a nominal record on the Police National Computer (PNC). According to a Ministry of Justice extract of PNC data there were 9.4 million offenders of working age (16-64) with a nominal record, as opposed to the population of 42.4m. 

Nominal records include not only those persons with convictions but also those with impending prosecutions, cautions, cases that require no further action and any other criminal justice activity on their record. The Home Office reported that there were 12.6m nominal records held on the PNC for individuals with a criminal element against their names. 

In its report, the MoJ said that based on these two data extracts, it was estimated that approximately one out of every four people of working age in the UK has a record. The MoJ stated the figures are an estimate which has limitations and that a comprehensive programme of work would need to be undertaken to determine a precise figure...

Go Prosecute, a brand-new development programme for newly qualified barristers to gain invaluable prosecution experience, has been launched by the Crown Prosecution Service. Launching today, a pilot for Go Prosecute will provide a unique opportunity for new barristers at the self-employed Bar to join the Crown Prosecution Service for up to two years before resuming practice in chambers...

Successful applicants for the initial pilot will join the CPS at the newly created Crown Advocate 1 (CA1) grade, the entry grade for advocates undertaking prosecution work within the Crown Court. They will spend the first year working on cases in the magistrates’ court, youth court, and non-contested hearing and appeals in the Crown Court. If they continue to a second year, they will move on to more complex work involving jury trials. All successful applicants will receive a full salary and employee benefits...

Our courts and tribunals will temporarily close on various dates over the Christmas period. The closure dates for this year are:

• Wednesday 25 December 2024
• Thursday 26 December 2024
• Friday 27 December 2024
• Wednesday 1 January 2025

Some magistrates’ courts will be open on 26 December 2024 and 1 January 2025, but for remand hearings only. On Friday 27 December 2024, only County and Family Courts, Crown Courts, the High Court, Court of Appeal (Royal Courts of Justice and Rolls Building) and some tribunals will be closed. Magistrates’ courts and our Scotland tribunal offices will open on this day. In Scotland, our tribunal offices will also be closed on Thursday 2 January 2025.