Issue 188  10th April 2021

'Legal profession joins tributes to Duke of Edinburgh'

Senior members of the legal profession have joined the national and international tributes to the Duke of Edinburgh, whose death at the age of 99 was announced by Buckingham Palace at noon today. Lord chancellor Robert Buckland said: 'HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh will be remembered with deep gratitude for his service in the Royal Navy, his tireless support to HM The Queen and his strong advocacy for environmental and technological causes. He was the very epitome of public service.'

'Police bill makes provision for remote juries, MoJ reveals'

The government is making long-term plans to enable juries to hear trials remotely long after the pandemic is over, it has emerged. While controversy over the mammoth Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill has centred around new police powers to manage protests, an impact assessment document for the bill reveals government ambitions to make greater use of technology after emergency coronavirus legislation expires. The bill passed its second reading in the House of Commons last month. The document states that the Coronavirus Act 2020 is due to expire in March 2022. New legislation would be required to make permanent provision for live links in criminal courts.

The impact assessment says: ‘These new provisions will be developed using the learning and experience from the use of the 2020 act provisions, helping to deliver improved measures which give the courts more flexibility around when and how live links can be used now and in the future as technology develops. This would make it possible in the future, for example, for a jury, sitting collectively, to participate in a trial by “live video link” where the court considered this appropriate. Remote participation by a jury would only be considered at the discretion of the trial judge where there is good and sufficient reason to operate in this way.’

'Defence solicitors to be paid for engaging early with prosecutors'

Criminal defence practitioners are to be paid for engaging early with prosecutors, the government has announced. The Ministry of Justice has decided to press ahead with its proposal to introduce a new unit of work for advice and assistance associated with pre-charge engagement. Pre-charge engagement refers to the voluntary engagement between parties to an investigation after the first PACE interview and before a suspect has been charged. But the department is backing down on the need for practitioners to obtain a written agreement for pre-charge engagement, deciding that a file note detailing an oral or written agreement will be enough to claim the fee.

The consultation response can be found here.

End to End Encryption Scrutinised

Home Secretary Priti Patel is planning to deliver a keynote speech at a child protection charity’s event focused on exposing the perceived ills of end-to-end encryption and asking for stricter regulation of the technology. At the same time a new report will say that technology companies need to do more to protect children online. Patel will headline an April 19 roundtable organised by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), according to a draft invitation seen by WIRED. The event is set to be deeply critical of the encryption standard, which makes it harder for investigators and technology companies to monitor communications between people and detect child grooming or illicit content, including terror or child abuse imagery.

End-to-end encryption works by securing communications between those involved in them – only the sender and receiver of messages can see what they say and platforms providing the technology cannot access the content of messages. The tech has been increasingly made standard in recent years with WhatsApp and Signal using end-to-end encryption by default to protect people’s privacy. The Home Office's move comes as Facebook plans to roll out end-to-end encryption across all its messaging platforms – including Messenger and Instagram – which has sparked a fierce debate in the UK and elsewhere over the supposed risks the technology poses to children.

'Drug possession should be treated like speeding says police chief'

Possession of drugs such as cannabis should be treated like speeding with offenders sent on awareness courses, says the president of the Police Superintendents' Association. Paul Griffiths said people needed to 'understand why they have been intercepted by police' rather than being offered a 'punitive response'...

At least eight police forces in England and Wales have been using or creating diversion programmes. It came after senior officers found criminal sanctions for low-level users did nothing to reduce the problem. Meanwhile, cannabis possession offences have dropped by up to 75 per cent in a decade and, in some areas, users can already take a diversion programme to avoid charges.