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
'Court backlog: MoJ likely to miss target'
The government will miss its target of bringing the Crown court backlog down to 53,000 by March 2025, the Law Society has predicted, following the latest publication of court data.
Figures published by HM Courts & Tribunals Service show that the Crown court backlog stood at 60,898 in February, compared to 57,539 a year earlier. The backlog fell by only 546 cases between January and February this year. In the magistrates’ court, the backlog stood at 343,519 in February, down from 355,594 a year earlier. However, the open caseload increased by 1,666 between January and February...
Society president Lubna Shuja said: ‘The data cuts through the rhetoric and clearly shows that delays in the criminal justice system aren’t coming down anytime soon. The public need to know they can rely on a functioning criminal justice system...
'Police given more time to focus on solving crimes and protecting public'
Police will have more time to prioritise victims of crime and bring criminals to justice under new rules announced today to cut unnecessary red tape when recording crime... All reported crimes for a single incident will now consistently be recorded under the ‘principal offence’, rather than as multiple entries on a database that effectively re-records the same incident. The police will continue to pursue all offences involved, understanding how they are linked, as part of their thorough investigative work...
Police will also be empowered to make decisions on cases where communications, such as text messages or letters, are malicious or rude, but not threatening. Officers should be on our streets investigating crimes like burglary, not comments made online. As such, they will consider if such issues should be dealt with by social media companies instead. This follows new statutory guidance on the recording of so-called non-crime hate incidents, which will ensure police are prioritising the freedom of expression that our nation is built on. And police will no longer need to record public disturbances that have already been dealt with or are quiet once the police arrive at the scene...
'New crackdown on fraud introduced by the Home Office'
New offence will make it easier to prosecute a large organisation if an employee commits fraud for the organisation’s benefit... The new failure to prevent fraud offence will make it easier to prosecute a large organisation if an employee commits fraud for the organisation’s benefit.
If fraud is committed by an employee of an organisation, the organisation must be able to demonstrate it had reasonable measures in place to deter the offending or risk receiving an unlimited fine. The proposed legislation encourages businesses to do more to deter offending which will help cut crime and protect consumers, investors, other businesses and the taxpayer from fraudulent practices. Businesses which fail to deter fraud will face enforcement action under new Home Office plans...
International
'Virtual reality helping victims' - Scotland
Victims and witnesses are set to use virtual reality headsets to familiarise themselves with giving evidence in court as part of a pioneering Scottish Government initiative to allay fears or discomfort around the process. Ahead of giving evidence in court, the world-leading £500,000 virtual court project will allow victims to ‘walk through’ a 3-dimensional world, comprising actual videos of the court building where their case will be held. The system uses cutting-edge software to allow victims and witnesses to interact in a virtual environment that includes depictions of the people and objects they can expect to encounter when they go to court...
Other
'Here’s what’s wrong with Labour’s attack ads on crime'
Shadow Attorney General Emily Thornberry this morning became the latest media casualty of Labour’s attempts to justify their much-criticised attack adverts on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, in particular the tweet claiming that Mr Sunak “[doesn’t] believe that adults convicted of sexually assaulting children should go to prison”...
... It is a superficially attractive line, and one which Labour HQ has apparently calculated will suffice to keep Labour afloat while the flares noisily explode around them. But it is also wildly dishonest; a fiesta of disingenuous assumption and intellectual sleight of hand, designed to exploit the gaps in the public’s understanding of their justice system...