Issue 379  4th January 2025

In a major upgrade to Serious Crime Prevention Orders, new Interim Orders will allow immediate action to disrupt and deter suspected serious criminality. These orders are part of a stronger approach to organised crime which will form part of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill. This new approach will level up our response to serious crime including organised immigration crime, with new powers mirroring those which are already used to disrupt other harmful criminality such as knife crime, slavery and trafficking. The Bill will improve border security, a key foundation for delivering on the Government’s Plan for Change.

Currently, securing a Serious Crime Prevention Order imposed on suspects, including people smugglers, can be a complex and lengthy process, restricting the use of this powerful tool. Interim Orders will go further, speeding up the process for placing restrictions on people under investigation to prevent, deter and disrupt serious and organised crime, including people smuggling. These new Interim Orders will allow the National Crime Agency (NCA), the police and other law enforcement agencies to apply directly to the High Court to impose immediate restrictions while a full Order is considered. By taking immediate action at an early stage, without requiring a conviction, these Interim Orders will help crack down on people smugglers and other forms of serious and organised crime. This will strengthen the tools of law enforcement to disrupt these individuals who are operating in the UK, in some cases allowing investigations and prosecutions to continue whilst preventing further serious criminality from taking place. The new orders will form an important part of preventing organised immigration crime while complementing the UK’s relentless pursuit of criminal gangs...

Restrictions will vary on a case-by-case basis but could include:

• Travel restrictions
• A ban on laptop or mobile phone usage
• A ban on accessing social media networks, including via a third party
• Restrictions on whom someone can associate with
• Restrictions on devices and communications with certain individuals
• Restrictions on their finances, helping to prevent criminal proceeds from going under the radar.

Breaching an Interim Order could lead to up to five years in prison.

The mounting backlog crisis in the criminal justice system has forced ministers to keep so-called Nightingale courts open in hotels and conference centres, years after they were meant to deal with pandemic delays. With the starting dates of some trials now being pushed back to 2028, the Ministry of Justice plans to extend contracts for the temporary courts to maximise capacity in England and Wales. The backlog has been leading to more distressed victims pulling out of prosecutions and has left some defendants feeling trapped in legal purgatory.

The Government says that Nightingales are part of its commitment to “bearing down on the backlog”, which has almost doubled in five years. It now stands at more than 73,000 cases. But some senior barristers are frustrated that another chunk of the limited justice budget will be spent on these temporary facilities, when many permanent courtrooms are being left unused because of other financial shortfalls. They believe that declining numbers of duty solicitors and of barristers specialising in low-paid criminal cases, plus insufficient funding to provide enough judges, are the bigger issues behind delayed hearings. Old buildings and overstretched staff are also said to slow things down.

The impact is so bad that several trials have recently been scheduled to begin in 2028. These include a fraud case involving two alleged victims who will be in their early 80s by the time it gets under way, eight years after they claim the crime happened. Others involve the alleged assault of an emergency worker in 2023 and drugs offences...

Campaigners for justice in the Post Office scandal have said they will “never give in” after receiving OBEs in the new year honours list. Lee Castleton, Seema Misra, Chris Head and Jo Hamilton were all honoured for services to justice. The lead campaigner, Sir Alan Bates, was knighted earlier this year. Hundreds of Post Office branch operators were persecuted and some prosecuted when the faulty Horizon IT system reported shortfalls in their funds. Many are still awaiting compensation...