Issue 319  11th November 2023

... My Government will act to keep communities safe from crime, anti-social behaviour, terrorism and illegal migration. A bill will be brought forward to ensure tougher sentences for the most serious offenders and increase the confidence of victims. My Ministers will introduce legislation to empower police forces and the criminal justice system to prevent new or complex crimes, such as digital-enabled crime and child sexual abuse, including grooming.

At a time when threats to national security are changing rapidly due to new technology, my Ministers will give the security and intelligence services the powers they need and will strengthen independent judicial oversight. Legislation will be introduced to protect public premises from terrorism in light of the Manchester Arena attack.

My Government will deliver on the Illegal Migration Act passed earlier this year and on international agreements, to stop dangerous and illegal Channel crossings and ensure it is the government, not criminal gangs, who decides who comes to this country...

Under the new Sentencing Bill, the most horrific murderers will face spending the rest of their lives locked up, including for any murder involving sexual or sadistic conduct... The change in the law will mean that a Whole Life Order must be handed down in the worst cases, with judges only able to choose not to impose one in exceptional circumstances. The Bill will also make sure vile criminals who commit rape and other serious sexual offences face the full consequences of their actions and spend every day of their sentence behind bars, up from 50% when the Government came to power in 2010.

Through the Criminal Justice Bill, the government will make clear in law that reasonable force can be used to make criminals appear in the dock. If offenders still refuse, they will face a further two years in prison.

In a further step to keep the worst offenders locked up for longer, through the Criminal Justice Bill, we will create a statutory aggravating factor at sentencing to make sure grooming gang members and their ring leaders receive the toughest possible sentences. Murdering a partner at the end of a relationship will also become a statutory aggravating factor at sentencing.

Ministers will also continue to progress the Victims and Prisoners Bill, ensuring victims are at the heart of justice considerations. This will give Ministers the power to stop the parole of the worst offenders and stop them marrying in prison.

The Criminal Justice Bill will also give the police powers to drive crime and anti-social behaviour off our streets, tackling everyday crime that can cause misery to families across the country. The police will have the power to enter a premises without a warrant to seize stolen goods, such as phones, when they have reasonable proof that a specific stolen item is inside a property or premises, for example based off GPS location tracking technology.

The Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Bill will make sure the UK’s intelligence agencies continue to have the powers they need to tackle the evolving threats and technological advancements that provide new opportunities for terrorists, hostile state actors, child abusers and criminal gangs...

Responding to the wide range of legislation announced in today’s King’s Speech, Nick Vineall KC, Chair of the Bar Council, said:

“The King’s speech has set out an ambitious parliamentary agenda including various Bills affecting the justice sector. The court system has suffered over a decade of underfunding and legal aid cuts have denied many people effective access to justice. Additional funding is urgently required both to ensure that the courts and justice system can adequately function and to enable the delivery of the draft legislation announced today. The Bar Council will give careful consideration to the proposals concerning whole-life sentences. There is an obvious risk that when no credit can be achieved from a guilty plea, defendants who know that they have no defence will nevertheless insist on a trial, which means that their victims have to give evidence.”

Rishi Sunak is under growing pressure to sack Suella Braverman after she ignored Downing Street advice and published an explosive article accusing the Metropolitan police of political bias. Amid claims that the prime minister is too weak to remove the home secretary, ministers joined with senior police officers in accusing Braverman of stoking “hatred and division” before a pro-Palestinian march on Saturday. Five opposition parties publicly called for her removal from office on Thursday after Downing Street said the Times article – in which Braverman claimed that unnamed police officers were guilty of “double standards” and “played favourites when it comes to demonstrators” – had not been signed off...

Braverman’s article was written in response to the announcement on Wednesday by the Met police commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, that he did not have grounds to ban a march due to take place on Armistice Day. In the article, she said “pro-Palestinian mobs” were “largely ignored” by officers “even when clearly breaking the law”...

Police chiefs have privately said Braverman’s intervention is the worst example of political inference they have seen. The UK’s former top counter-terrorism officer Neil Basu told the Guardian that Braverman’s repeated criticisms meant she had lost the confidence of the police and merited her instant dismissal. “What she is doing is saying do as I say and if you don’t and it goes wrong, I will have your head … She is starting us on a road where politicians will dictate what police officers do.”

Magistrates are not following the law when sending thousands of people to jail on remand, exacerbating the prison overcrowding crisis in England, a report suggests. The remand population is at a record high, with one in five people who are in jail awaiting trial or sentencing, up from one in nine in 2019. Police cells are being used to hold prisoners, and the government plans to rent cells overseas because of the lack of capacity.

A report by the legal reform charity Justice says “poor quality decision-making” by magistrates – including in two-minute hearings – may be playing a part. It sent observers to 742 magistrates court hearings in England and found that four out of five decisions to remand in custody or impose bail conditions did not reference the relevant law and give full reasons with reference to the facts of the case, as is required under the Bail Act 1976. Justice said this undermined fairness and increased the likelihood of custodial remand being imposed unnecessarily...

The report says that despite the stringent test for custodial remand or imposing conditions on bail under the Bail Act, unconditional bail was the outcome just 21% of the time. Defendants accused of offences of low to moderate severity were remanded in custody 31% of the time. Justice says people jailed while awaiting trial often experience some of the worst conditions in the prison estate, are denied access to rehabilitative programmes and are frequently held in increasingly overcrowded local prisons. They are more likely than other prisoners to have problems accessing mental health care, are at an increased suicide risk and can spend months or even years awaiting trial. The report also suggests that biases around race, nationality and the use of video link or a secure dock – which can be random and unrelated to the risk posed by the defendant – may significantly affect decisions not to grant bail...

Criminal defence solicitors have been told to hold the fort for a while longer after senior legal figures were told they are losing faith that the sector will be saved. Solicitors told a panel discussion at the Criminal Law Solicitors' Association conference that the sector is shrinking every year.

‘There is no belief anymore. Promises are never upheld. We’re having to take the government to court,’ one attendee told the panel, which comprised Her Honour Judge Deborah Taylor, chair of the Criminal Legal Aid Advisory Board, Law Society vice president Richard Atkinson, CLSA president Daniel Bonich, London Criminal Courts Solicitors' Association president Fadi Daoud, and solicitor Zachary Whyte, a member of trade union Unite. ‘The biggest problem we are going to have is trying to get people engaged. The principal problem is trying to develop a strategy that will engage the profession again. People have effectively given up,’ the solicitor said. Taylor replied: ‘Coming from the north east, we have got a saying, “Shy bairns get nowt”. If you do not ask, you do not get. If you do not engage, you do not even enter the game anymore. I hope the position of CLAAB does make a difference. I know people will be sceptical about yet another committee but one of the ways I hope we will gain confidence of the profession again is by making recommendations and publishing what we are doing.’ The board will make recommendations on a regular basis, Taylor added...

Tributes have started to pour in from across the legal world for the former lord chief justice Lord Judge, who died on Tuesday aged 82. Lord Judge served as head of the judiciary from 2008 to 2013 and continued to be an active and prominent cross-bench member of the House of Lords, last speaking in parliament in March...