Issue 347  25th May 2024

Yesterday’s snap general election announcement has left the future of pending legislation and other government initiatives affecting lawyers mired in uncertainty. A ‘wash-up’ period before the dissolution of the current parliament begins today, where the final bills that may become law will be considered. Any unfinished business is lost at dissolution and the government may need the co-operation of the opposition in passing legislation that is still in progress. In the past some bills have been lost completely, while others have progressed quickly but in a much-shortened form...

Bills timetabled and likely to progress to royal asset include the Victims of Prisoners Bill, the Media Bill and the Post Office (Horizon Systems) Offences Bill... A Law Society spokesperson said: ‘We expect the Post Office (Horizon Systems) Offences Bill will receive Royal Assent in the coming days. It is imperative that postmasters and others affected by the Post Office/Horizon scandal have their convictions quashed and gain access to compensation schemes before Parliament prorogues. But a piece of legislation this constitutionally significant requires adequate Parliamentary scrutiny time. This Bill has been pushed through both Houses at pace and the Law Society remains concerned that it could set a precedent of parliamentary intervention in the justice system. We are disappointed that criminal legal aid and the Civil Legal Aid Review will be kicked into the long grass again. Although they are not directly impacted by the wash-up, it is likely that the General Election will mean the UK government will not be bringing anything forward before the new parliament. We would urge the next government to treat them as a priority.’

The Ministry of Justice’s ambition to reduce the backlog in crown courts in England and Wales to 53,000 by March next year is no longer achievable, a parliamentary watchdog has said. The MoJ set the target in October 2021 when the outstanding caseload was 60,000, but by the end of last year it had reached 67,573 – its highest level ever – according to a National Audit Office (NAO) report.

The report’s publication date was decided before the election announcement, but the criminal justice system is expected to be a key battleground between Labour and the Conservatives. On Wednesday, ministers triggered emergency measures, leading to the last-minute postponement of hundreds of court hearings, and release of suspects on bail rather than being held on remand, to tackle prison overcrowding. The NAO says the remand population in jails, which last year reached more than 16,000, the highest in 50 years, with around two-thirds awaiting trial as opposed to sentencing, is contributing to “acute prison population pressures”...

Police are reportedly being advised to arrest fewer people in a bid to ease overcrowding in prisons. Force chiefs are being told to consider halting “non-priority arrests” until there is capacity in England and Wales’s jails, The Times reported. The newspaper said it obtained an internal document from the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) which said “any planned operations where large numbers of arrests may take place” should potentially be paused to ease pressures in the criminal justice system. This is thought to apply to operations that do not have to happen on a specific date and could be arranged for a later time...

A separate, internal letter from the NPCC to chief constables in England and Wales, seen by The Times, warned that the government’s contingency measures are having an “unsustainable operational impact on policing”, risk public safety and could limit officers’ ability to investigate crime...

Former sub-postmasters set to have their convictions from the Post Office scandal quashed have spoken of their "joy" and "disbelief" at the move. Keith Bell, who was convicted of false accounting in 2002, told the BBC it was a "huge relief". Lee Williamson said he was "overjoyed and very grateful".

A law quashing convictions from the Horizon IT scandal was approved by Parliament on Thursday, one of the final bills to pass ahead of the general election. The law applies to England, Wales and Northern Ireland - the Scottish parliament is to pass its own bill to quash convictions.

The case is seen as one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British legal history. Between 1999 and 2015, hundreds of sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted due to faulty accountancy software called Horizon, which showed errors that did not exist. Many sub-postmasters went to prison for false accounting and theft, and several were financially ruined.

Child serial killer Lucy Letby has been denied permission to appeal against her convictions for the murder and attempted murder of babies in her care when she worked as a neonatal nurse. Letby, of Hereford, was convicted in August 2023 of the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of six others at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016. Dame Victoria Sharp, sitting with Lord Justice Holroyde, said they had refused Letby's request to bring an appeal at a short Court of Appeal hearing earlier. The full reasons for the judges' decision were not made public, with the full details of Letby's appeal bid also unable to be published for legal reasons. Dame Victoria said: "Having heard her application, we have decided to refuse leave to appeal on all grounds and refuse all associated applications. A full judgment will be handed down in due course."