About
A free weekly collection of criminal law links - for practitioners, law students, and anyone with an interest in the criminal justice system of England and Wales.
Curated by Sam Willis, a barrister at 5 King's Bench Walk.
News
Criminal Legal Aid Review Update
... due to the calling of the general election and the pre-election period that the Government is now in, the Ministry of Justice cannot make any announcements in relation to the accelerated items of the [Criminal Legal Aid Review] by the end of November. Any announcements will have to await the outcome of the general election and may of course now depend on who is in power or holds what office.
I met with the Lord Chancellor on Monday and he assured me of his personal commitment to progressing the [Criminal Legal Aid Review]. Officials at the Ministry of Justice have also assured me that they will continue to work on the review so that they are in a position to brief Ministers and hopefully make announcements once the new Government is known.
Review of Pre-Charge Bail
The government intends to review pre-charge bail legislation to ensure the safety of victims is prioritised and police are supported in investigating all offences. Pre-charge bail allows police to release a suspect from custody, usually subject to conditions, while officers continue their investigation or await a charging decision.
Reforms made in 2017 limited the length of pre-charge bail to an initial 28 days and required that the extension of bail conditions for up to three months should be authorised by a senior officer. This was intended to prevent suspects being left for lengthy periods under restrictive bail conditions without being charged. The review will scrutinise the system to see how it can be improved.
'Youth court system in chaos, says children's commissioner'
The youth justice system in England and Wales is “chaotic and dysfunctional” following almost a decade of cuts and court closures, the children’s commissioner has warned, after a Guardian investigation found a system plagued by increasing delays, confusion and poor child protection.
Anne Longfield called for a wholesale review of the youth justice system, saying the youth court was “not a child-friendly environment where you could really help a young person and is not meeting standards that we had hoped”.
Unauthorised Encampments Consultation
The government will launch a consultation on proposals to give police new powers to arrest and seize the property and vehicles of trespassers who set up unauthorised caravan sites. Currently such trespassing is defined in law as a civil matter. But the Home Office is consulting on making it a criminal offence.
The consultation can be found here and closes at 11:59pm on 4 March 2020.
'Extinction Rebellion protesters may sue Met as ban ruled unlawful'
Hundreds of Extinction Rebellion protesters may sue the Metropolitan police for unlawful arrest after the high court quashed an order banning the group’s protests in London last month.
Mr Justice Dingemans and Mr Justice Chamberlain said the Met’s section 14 order that XR “must now cease their protests within London” was unlawful because it went beyond the powers granted to police by the Public Order Act 1986. In a judicial review ruling handed down on Wednesday morning, the judges said the Met had been wrong to define Extinction Rebellion’s two-week long “autumn uprising” as a single public assembly on which it could impose the order.
The judgment can be found here.
International
'Scotland stops treating under-12s as criminals but is urged to do more'
Scotland is to stop treating children under 12 as offenders later this month after the Scottish parliament voted earlier this year to raise the age of criminal responsibility from eight.
The Age of Criminal Responsibility (Scotland) Act will not come fully into force until late 2020, but the referral of under-12s to a children’s panel for alleged offences will end in late November this year. Scotland stopped prosecuting children under 12 through the courts in 2011.
Other
'Police concerns over rise of paedophile hunters'
Prosecutors used evidence provided by so-called paedophile hunters in more than 250 cases against suspected abusers in 2018... However, senior police officers said they had serious concerns over the activities of these vigilante groups. An assistant chief constable with responsibilities for tackling online child abuse said paedophile hunting groups were usually acting in their own interests rather than those of the children, diverted police resources away from other offenders and often committed offences themselves.