Issue 167  7th November 2020

Following rigorous health and safety assessments, Doncaster Justice Centre South (Doncaster Crown Court) will resume jury trials next week bringing the total to 79.

The Prime Minister has announced the intention of the Government to introduce regulations that place England back into “lockdown”. The work of the courts and tribunals will continue to be exempted from these measures.

In March we urged judges across the jurisdictions to facilitate the remote attendance of participants in court proceedings where that was compatible with the interests of justice. The interests of justice are wide and extend beyond the interests of parties in a hearing to encompass the consequences of delay in the case and to the system as a whole. Remote attendance, together with the requirements for social distancing, have led to a significant reduction in footfall in all court buildings whilst enabling thousands of hearings to take place. Significantly reduced footfall will continue to be necessary in this next phase. Judges and magistrates must continue to make full use of these provisions so that cases can be dealt with as soon and as efficiently as possible.

Six arrests have been made over alleged fraud in two government support schemes designed to help businesses hit by Covid-19... Three people have also been arrested over alleged fraud linked to coronavirus bounce-back loans... It marks the first such arrests amid a crackdown on scams relating to government support schemes and come amid fears of widespread fraud.

The Sentencing Act 2020 consolidates sentencing procedural law into a Sentencing Code (the Code), which brings together the procedural provisions which courts rely upon during the sentencing process... The Code covers adult and youth sentencing in England and Wales, as well as sentencing for the armed forces.

The Government has asked the Law Commission to investigate the laws around corporate criminal liability and provide options to reform them. Concerns have been raised over the effectiveness of current laws in criminalising corporate entities when they commit economic crime. Calls for reform have been revived following the mixed success of recent high-profile prosecutions. Without action to reform this area of law, there is a risk that the UK will fall behind international standards in the prosecution of economic crime.

The Commission is aiming to publish the Options Paper in in late 2021 and will work with the Government on next steps, including the potential for a full Law Commission project on Corporate Criminal Liability.

Murderers and paedophiles who hold back information on their victims could now face longer behind bars after the Prisoners (Disclosure of Information About Victims) Act – known commonly as ‘Helen’s Law’ - received Royal Assent today (4 November 2020).

Parole Board guidance is already clear that offenders who withhold this type of information may still pose a risk to the public and therefore could be denied parole. However, the Prisoners (Disclosure of Information About Victims) Act places a legal duty on the Parole Board for the first time to consider the anguish caused by murderers who refuse to disclose the location of a victim’s body when considering them for release.

The law will also apply to paedophiles who make indecent images of children but do not identify their victims - such as the case of Vanessa George who abused infants at a nursery school but never formally identified which children she harmed.