Issue 302  15th July 2023

The Sentencing Council has published two new guidelines for sentencing offenders convicted of perverting the course of justice and witness intimidation offences in England and Wales. The guidelines will ensure a consistent approach is taken to sentencing these two offences and make the process more transparent and easier to understand for victims, witnesses, offenders and the public. There are currently no sentencing guidelines for perverting the course of justice offences. The new guidelines will provide the first guidance for sentencing these common law offences...

The new guidelines will come into force on 1 October 2023.

Almost 2,000 judges will receive a 7% pay increase as part of the government’s new commitment on public sector spending. Justice secretary Alex Chalk said today he accepted the recommendation of the Senior Salaries Review Body to award an increase to most judicial office holders for 2023/24. The increase will apply to all salary groups backdated to April 2023...

The MoJ will also offer 7% increases for prison officers, 5% increases for prison managers and governors, and an extra £2,000 for lowest paid prison staff. Court and probation staff are subject to different salary reviews. But there are questions already over where the money will come from and what other areas of justice spending may have to be cut back...

The government has invited further feedback on a controversial courts IT system after discovering just three months ago that the inability of barristers to reassign cases to colleagues at short notice is causing problems. Justice minister Mike Freer revealed in a written parliamentary response to Sir Bob Neill, chair of the House of Commons justice select committee, that work to make Common Platform more flexible will be fast-tracked...

Last month, the House of Commons public accounts committee said HMCTS’s approach to implementing the platform remained detached from the needs of those who use the court system, and that it had not done enough to listen and respond to users' concerns. The Common Platform project began in 2012 with the aim of reducing inefficiencies across the criminal justice system, but has been beset with problems to the extent that court staff have even gone on strike.

An ambitious blueprint to transform how adult rapes are prosecuted is being rolled out nationally by the CPS as the next stage of a commitment to drive up the number of cases taken to court and improve victim experiences. The Crown Prosecution Service’s new national operating model, which is being launched in England and Wales in tandem with police, will drive cultural and operational change right across the CPS by setting an improved and standardised approach for how all adult rape cases are handled.

The new model includes commitments such as:

• Offering early advice to police in every rape or serious sexual assault case within 21 days...
• dedicated victim liaison officers in every case so there is a single point of contact for victims to reduce the potential for delayed communication and help improve the experience for victims
• increased scrutiny of CPS and police decision-making, with further engagement with Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (ISVAs)
• a focus on our staff with a roll-out of clinical supervision and bespoke training on suspect-centred approaches.

Women who have made rape complaints have told BBC News that police and court systems are still "weighted in favour of the accused", despite a new programme piloted by 19 police forces. Operation Soteria is being extended to all 43 police areas in England and Wales from Monday. Home Secretary Suella Braverman wants police to "focus on the suspect", not on undermining the victim. But women have told the BBC they find the process tough, even in pilot areas.

The latest available official figures show between April and December 2022 there were about 50,000 rape offences recorded by police in England and Wales. Of these, about 900 (less than 2%) had yet resulted in a charge or court summons...