Issue 322  2nd December 2023

Thousands of rehabilitated ex-prisoners serving long-since abolished indefinite sentences will become eligible to have their licence period terminated earlier as part of new reforms. Offenders released from prison on licence while serving Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences currently have to wait a minimum of 10 years before they can have their licence reviewed by the Parole Board. The new changes will mean IPP offenders serving their sentence in the community are referred for review 3 years after their first release.

IPP sentences were introduced in 2005, designed to prevent offenders who were considered dangerous from being released even though the offence did not merit a life sentence. There is broad consensus against the IPP sentence and the policy was scrapped in 2012 due to the inconsistent and more frequent application of these sentences than was intended. If a licence is not terminated at the three-year mark by the Parole Board, it will automatically terminate after a further two years if the offender is not recalled to prison in that time. This is the first time these offenders will have a defined ‘end date’ to their sentence...

A consultation looking at whether cowardly domestic killers should receive tougher sentences if they subject their victims to a campaign of coercive and controlling abuse, has been launched by the Lord Chancellor today. Ministers will also consider whether murderers who use a knife or another weapon already at the crime scene to kill should also face steeper starting points – a change that could result in higher minimum terms in these cases...

The Criminal Bar Association has launched a training programme for counsel prosecuting and defending rape and serious sexual assault (RASSO) cases. Tana Adkin KC, association chair, said the training programme would ‘hold at its core fairness to all involved in the criminal justice process’. Meanwhile a change would be needed in current fees which did not reflect the ‘seriousness or nature of the work’. Adkin said: ‘We know that RASSO cases require the most skilled advocates to conduct them, they are witness intensive, require detailed and careful preparation at an early stage'. Current fees do not accept that, she said. ‘RASSO counsel describe feeling privileged and proud to prosecute and defend RASSO cases but their numbers have fallen and some who are trained RASSO counsel no longer wish to do this work, which is why we want government to respect and invest in the expertise and work of criminal barristers who chose this work. 'RASSO cases need to be paid equitably as between prosecution and defence.' In some cases prosecutors are paid less, she said.

There are currently 668 RASSO prosecutors. Adkin said being ‘RASSO trained’ was a mark of excellence. The new training aims to ‘attract, retain and grow the diversity of talent the Criminal Bar has for RASSO casework’, Adkin said...

The CCRC has for the first time referred the convictions of two former Post Office workers who are now deceased to the Crown Court.   Although the CCRC has made posthumous referrals to the Court of Appeal before, this is the first time that the CCRC has referred the Post Office convictions of deceased persons to the Crown Court. 

Where a defendant has pleaded guilty in a magistrates’ court they cannot appeal unless the CCRC refers the case to the Crown Court.  There is no statute that expressly provides for the Crown Court to be able to hear appeals on behalf of deceased persons. However, the CCRC considers that there is a real possibility that the Criminal Appeal Act 1995 enables the Crown Court to hear an appeal on behalf of a deceased person if the case is referred by the CCRC. On that basis, the CCRC has referred for appeal the convictions of these two deceased Post Office workers, whose families have no other means of having the convictions overturned...

Twenty dangerous drugs will be banned to protect people in the UK from overdoses and drug related deaths. Following advice from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), 15 new dangerous synthetic opioids will become Class A drugs under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971... Many of these substances are incredibly dangerous and have similar effects to heroin and fentanyl, posing a higher risk of accidental overdose. This has been a widespread problem in other countries.