Issue 387  1st March 2025

The Crime and Policing Bill, which is central to the government’s Plan for Change and Safer Streets mission, will be introduced in Parliament today and begins its journey to becoming law. It will also include measures to address the highest-harm crimes impacting society, such as knife crime, violence against women and girls, cybercrime, child sexual abuse, and terrorism.

In new measures announced today, police will be given enhanced powers against theft of mobile phones – no longer needing a warrant to search properties where stolen items have been electronically geolocated. Under the new warrantless powers of entry, officers will be able to enter premises identified by electronic mapping if stolen items are believed to be there and it is not practicable to obtain a warrant from a court. This can be done through a ‘find my phone’ app, WiFi access points, Bluetooth, mobile network technology or tracking devices attached to any other possession or vehicle...

There will also be increased powers to crack down on repeat antisocial behaviour offenders, with new Respect Orders banning those prolific offenders from our town centres. Police will be given the power to seize vehicles that cause havoc to communities, allowing them to deal with the scourge of off-road bikes in public parks and dangerous e-scooters on pavements...

Other measures that have already been announced by the government, such as the presumption of anonymity for firearms officers facing criminal proceedings relating to the use of lethal force in the line of duty, will be introduced later in the parliamentary process. This also includes Ronan’s Law clamping down on the online sales of knives, announced last week...

The Law Commission has today published a comprehensive consultation paper on reforming the criminal appeals system in England and Wales. The Law Commission seeks views on potential reforms to make the appeals system more effective and accessible while maintaining the principle that trials are the primary mechanism for establishing facts...

Our provisional proposals include:

• replacing the “real possibility test” used by the CCRC when considering whether to refer cases to appeal courts with one focusing on the CCRC’s own view of the case, rather than requiring it to predict the court’s response;
• making the CCRC subject to an independent inspectorate;
• replacing the requirement for the wrongly convicted to prove their innocence beyond reasonable doubt to receive compensation so that those who can prove their innocence on the balance of probabilities will receive compensation;
• simplifying appeals to the High Court on a point of law in summary proceedings by abolishing the “case stated” procedure;
• giving courts and the CCRC greater powers to investigate claims that a conviction is unsafe due to juror misconduct; and
• enabling more appeals to be considered by the Supreme Court by removing the requirement for the CACD or High Court to certify that an appeal involves a question of law of general public importance.

We also seek views on a number of topics, including:

• the core principles that should apply to criminal appeals;
• the time limits for lodging appeals;
• the law governing the composition and terms of appointment for CCRC Commissioners;
• whether the “unduly lenient” sentence scheme should be expanded to cover offences such as causing death by careless driving and animal cruelty;
• whether provisions allowing for a person who has previously been acquitted to be retried when there is compelling new evidence should be extended to cover non-penetrative sexual offences, and certain historic offences that are not currently covered;
• whether it should be lawful to disclose evidence for the purposes of responsible journalism to reveal a possible miscarriage of justice; and
• establishing a National Forensic Archive Service to take over responsibility for long-term storage of evidence used in trials...

Changes must be made to the way court cases are prioritised, barristers and victims’ advocates have said, with some trials already being scheduled into 2028. The existing system means judges must schedule trials for defendants who are held in custody within six months of arrest unless a legal application is made, regardless of the severity of their alleged offence, while those on bail have no set time limit. This means victims of serious crimes including rape face years-long waits for trials, while less serious crimes are bumped ahead in the queue.

Mary Prior KC, chair of the Criminal Bar Association, said the system was formed before the current problem of backlogs. “If someone is supplying drugs but is in custody, that case will take priority over a case where someone is a victim of burglary, fraud or rape and the perpetrator is on bail,” she told the Observer... Prior said the current system of prioritisation was causing victims of traumatic crimes to “walk away” from prosecutions, meaning perpetrators go free. Trials taking place years after incidents also face difficulties with witness evidence as memories fade. The government is going to have to come up with something because the system is at breaking point,” she said. “We need to have a conversation about priorities. It’s very hard to explain to a victim of rape why her case is being adjourned because someone who has supplied class A drugs is remanded in custody and gets priority over them. If we’re going to be serious about the government’s pledge to halve violence against women and girls, then their cases are going to have to be a priority”...

Prisoners may have to earn their freedom through “good behaviour credits” rather than be automatically released after a set period as part of an overhaul being considered by the government. The justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, who travelled to Texas where a similar scheme was introduced more than a decade ago, said she wanted a “carrot-and-stick” approach throughout the prison system in England and Wales. In Texas, there is no automatic early release scheme. Instead, prisoners can reduce the length of time they serve by earning “good behaviour and good time” credits, which means they can serve as little as 25% of their sentence behind bars if they maintain good behaviour and work productively. Automatic early release was introduced in England and Wales in 1991 for prisoners sentenced to less than four years, but expanded to more serious criminals in 2003. Now up to 70% of prisoners will be released automatically. If rolled out, prisoners could earn credits via work, training or taking part in any education scheme...

Mahmood told the Daily Telegraph: “We’ve got to be open to all potential future constructions of sentences. If you’re going to think about incentivised behaviour, obviously it’s a carrot and a stick, isn’t it? So you can’t then leave unchanged the rest of your current sentencing framework on automatic releases. If you’re going to go down the road of incentivisation, actually that might mean some things no longer become automatic. But we would have to consider carefully how you would take the best learning from the law and read across to our system because our arrangements are different. Although that’s the benefit of having a review, which means we can”...