Issue 238  2nd April 2022

Justice Secretary Dominic Raab today (30 March 2022) announced a package of landmark reforms designed to restore public confidence in the system, including a tougher Parole Board release test to ensure prisoners who still pose a risk are kept behind bars. The most dangerous offenders - murderers, rapists, terrorists and those who have caused or allowed the death of a child - will also now face ministerial scrutiny, including a new power to block their release in the interests of public safety. Where the Parole Board cannot confidently say the prisoner is safe to leave prison, they will refer the decision to the Justice Secretary.

The package of reforms announced today will strengthen the law to ensure that the parole systems puts the emphasis firmly back on public protection. This includes:

• Enshrining in law the expectation that the Parole Board will take a more precautionary approach. The wording in legislation will leave no room for interpretation and make clear that the only priority is whether a prisoner is safe to release
• Greater ministerial scrutiny on the release of the most dangerous offenders, including a new power to block their release in the interests of public safety
• Changing the law to increase the proportion of Parole Board members from policing backgrounds, and ensure they sit on hearings for the most dangerous offenders. Their first-hand experience in dealing with serious offenders and the risk they pose will put a greater focus on public protection in parole hearings. Currently, less than 5 per cent of the Parole Board’s membership falls into this category.

Home Secretary Priti Patel has today (30 March) launched a new Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan informed by victims and survivors...

The plan includes new measures to tackle perpetrators including:

• options for creating a new register for domestic abusers which could require perpetrators to take actions such as reporting to the police when changing address or opening a bank account with a new partner
• increasing electronic tagging to a further 3,500 individuals who have left prison and who pose a risk to women and girls
• investing £75 million on directly addressing abusers’ behaviour, as part of an overall £81 million for tackling perpetrators over the next 3 years

Violence Reduction Units and ‘hotspot policing’ initiatives prevented 49,000 violent offences across England and Wales, the government reveals today, as it sets out an ambitious funding programme to build on efforts tackling serious violence. Set up in 2019, Violence Reduction Units are a pioneering initiative established in 18 areas across England and Wales, bringing together local partners in policing, education, health, and local government, to share information in order to identify vulnerable children and adults at risk, helping steer them away from a life of crime and violence...

Figures published in an evaluation of these Violence Reduction Units’ first 18 months of operation demonstrate the impacts they are having up and down the country, changing lives and reducing violent crime. Areas that have rolled out Violence Reduction Units and intensive police patrols in violence hotspots saw 8,000 fewer incidents of violence leading to injury and 41,000 fewer incidents without injury, compared with areas that didn’t. This has resulted in an estimated £385 million avoided in associated costs for victims and society...

Today’s funding package includes:

• an additional £64 million for Violence Reduction Units, supporting the existing 18 and enabling two new units to be established in Cleveland and Humberside
• an additional £30 million into the ‘Grip’ police enforcement programme
• supporting the implementation of the new Serious Violence Duty and Serious Violence Reduction Orders, being brought into law via the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill

The Ministry of Justice has signalled that it is unlikely to reconsider its criminal legal aid reforms following the Law Society’s decision to withdraw support for the current proposals. Following further analysis of the government's proposals and meetings with officials, Chancery Lane declared yesterday that the ministry had ‘botched’ its response to the independent criminal legal aid review.

Justice secretary Dominic Raab has insisted the government’s package matches the review’s central £135m recommendation. Critics including the Society claim analysis of the consultation document and impact assessment show it does not. As as well describing the government’s words as ‘spin’, the Society advised criminal defence practitioners to think ‘long and hard’ about whether they want to continue doing publicly funded work as it no longer believes the work is economically viable.

The Sentencing Council has published two sentencing guidelines for offenders convicted of perverting the course of justice and witness intimidation offences in England and Wales for consultation...

The consultation runs from 30 March 2022 to 22 June 2022. The draft guidelines cover two offences: Perverting the course of justice contrary to common law; and Witness intimidation under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.

Innocent people bankrupted by legal battles to clear their names in criminal cases should be compensated by the state, says Her Majesty’s chief inspector of police. In his final interview with The Telegraph before stepping down this week, Sir Tom Winsor urged ministers to end decade-old curbs on the reimbursement of legal expenses for people acquitted of serious offences...