Issue 214  9th October 2021

Baroness Louise Casey of Blackstock will lead an independent review into the Metropolitan Police's culture and standards in the wake of Sarah Everard's murder, the force has announced. The review will look into the current leadership of the force and its recruitment, vetting and training of officers. Met Commissioner, Dame Cressida Dick, said: "The appointment of Baroness Casey to lead the independent review in to our culture and standards is an important step in our journey to rebuild public trust. Louise is extremely experienced and highly respected and I know will ask the difficult questions needed for this thorough review."

Boris Johnson has said the police’s failure to take sexual violence against women seriously was “infuriating”, pointing in particular to long delays in the criminal justice system that can result in people waiting years for their case to be heard. The prime minister and senior ministers joined widespread criticism of the police over their handling of violence against women and girls in the wake of the Sarah Everard case.

Speaking to the Times, Johnson said: “There’s [a] problem, which is partly caused by the failure of the criminal justice system to dispose of these [cases]. Are the police taking this issue seriously enough? It’s infuriating. I think the public feel that they aren’t and they’re not wrong.”

The government will bring forward tougher penalties and new police powers to crack down on disruption caused on motorways and other key transport infrastructure.

The measures include

• a new offence of interfering with the operation of key infrastructure – including motorways, railways, and airports – where the impact will affect the distribution of essential goods, such as fuel and medicine. The new offence would carry a maximum sentence of an unlimited fine, a year imprisonment, or both. It will also cover media printing premises, in light of the significant disruption caused by Extinction Rebellion protesters to newspaper deliveries last year.
• Tougher sentences for obstructing highways – the government proposes to amend existing legislation so that those guilty of obstructing a highway face an unlimited fine, six months’ imprisonment, or both. Currently, the offence of obstructing a highway carries a maximum fine of £1,000 and does not reflect the serious disruption caused by these dangerous actions. We will also close a loophole which allows protesters to cause further disruption on a road when it has been closed by the police for the purposes of clearing demonstrations and moving people on.
• Criminal Disruption Prevention Orders – this measure will enable courts to impose restrictions upon the activities of individuals who repeatedly cause serious disruption or engage in criminal activity at a protest. These orders will give the courts the power to prevent an individual with a history of disruption or where there is intelligence suggesting they are likely to commit a criminal offence from attending particular protests
• Penalties for blocking construction – a new offence of obstructing the construction of authorised infrastructure will be introduced, carrying a maximum penalty of an unlimited fine, six months’ imprisonment, or both.
• A new offence will be introduced to criminalise the act of locking-on and going equipped to lock-on, whereby it causes or is likely to cause serious disruption. The maximum penalties will be set at an unlimited fine, six months’ imprisonment, or both.
• In response to feedback from police, we will also introduce new stop and search powers to allow officers to search individuals and seize items that are likely to be used for lock-ons.

The government will support police to expand the use of drug testing on arrest, as part of a comprehensive strategy to tackle the misery caused by drug misuse and cut crime.

More than £15 million will be invested over the next 4 years, to enable police to test suspects arrested for a broader range of offences and build an evidence base of the links between drugs and criminality. This will help drive down demand for illegal drugs and prevent further crimes. A total of £375,000 will be offered to police forces immediately to increase their capacity to drug test on arrest. The government will offer £5,000 to all 43 forces in England and Wales to invest in extra testing equipment and training for police officers and staff this year. And in addition to this, 5 forces will receive an additional £32,000 boost this year to increase testing for a wider range of offences – which could include domestic abuse and public order offences.

Around ten thousand of those will be prolific robbers, thieves and burglars fitted with GPS tags as they come out of prison. This world-first project – which began in April – expanded to half of England and Wales last week and will now be funded for a further three years. It recently saw the first conviction using location data to pin a thief to the scene of further crimes and is deterring others from reoffending. The intention is to roll it out nationwide, if successful at curbing crime and helping police catch offenders.

In another world-first, alcohol monitoring tags will also be used on more than 12,000 prison leavers known to commit crimes when under the influence over the same period - helping keep them off alcohol altogether or limit their drinking to reduce the risk of them reoffending. It follows their successful use on offenders serving community sentences since last October to help cut the £22 billion cost of alcohol-related crime.

Over 3,500 high-risk domestic abusers will have their whereabouts monitored using GPS tags to protect victims and children from further trauma. The tags may also help the Probation Service discover relationships that offenders are keeping secret so they can alert new partners. The £183 million investment will help almost double the number of people tagged at any one time from around 13,500 this year to approximately 25,000 by 2025.

The number of people sentenced to more than 20 years in prison has quadrupled over the last decade, figures have shown. Given the increase in average tariff lengths handed down by courts, this figure is expected to continue to rise substantially over coming years. The findings come as the Ministry of Justice announces plans to build more prisons to house the growing number of longterm inmates. They also follow a public outcry over the murder of Sarah Everard, whose killer Wayne Couzens has been given a full-life tariff.