Issue 399  24th May 2025

'Violent criminals could be released early and chemical castration pilot expanded after review'

Violent prisoners, including those convicted of sex offences and domestic abuse, could be released after serving just a third of their sentence in a bid to ease prison overcrowding, under new recommendations made in a landmark review. The Independent Sentencing Review also recommends that more offenders are managed in the community instead of serving custodial sentences. The government will expand a small pilot scheme offering voluntary chemical castration to some sex offenders to 20 more prisons after the report said that trial should continue...

The review also calls for:

• Offenders to be given short custodial sentences of less than 12 months in only exceptional circumstances, such as if they don't comply with court orders or to provide respite for victims of domestic abuse
• The continuation of a pilot scheme providing voluntary chemical castration for sex offenders in the south-west of England
• Suspended sentences to be allowed for up to three years, and for them to be used more for low-risk offenders with high needs, such as people with substance abuse issues or pregnant women
• Courts to have greater flexibility to impose fines or travel, driving and football bans
• More funding for the Probation Service - which supervises offenders serving community sentences or those released into the community from prison - and greater availability of electronic monitoring equipment like tags

It also proposes an "earned progression model" for offenders, inspired by reforms in the US state of Texas. The BBC visited a high-security, supermax prison in Texas with Ms Mahmood in February. Under an earned progression model, offenders would progress through three stages: custody, where prisoners are incentivised to behave; post-custody, where offenders are strictly supervised and subjected to licence conditions; and the at-risk stage, where offenders aren't supervised but can be recalled if they offend again. Prisoners on standard determinate sentences - a fixed-length prison term - could move to the post-custody stage after serving one-third of their sentence providing they behave well. If not, they stay until halfway. This could include sex offenders and perpetrators of domestic abuse...

The report can be found here.

'Experts ‘would refuse to take part’ in mandatory castration for sex offenders'

Leading experts on the use of chemical castration for managing sexual offenders have said they would refuse to be part of any programme in the UK that makes the intervention compulsory. Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, confirmed in the Commons on Thursday that she was examining whether she could force offenders, including paedophiles, to take pills or injections to suppress “problematic sexual arousal”. But experts, including the professor who oversaw the UK’s first “chemical suppression” pilot, said such an approach would be ethically unsound. A lawyer specialising in sexual abuse cases questioned whether it would even work...

'Legal aid hack: data from hundreds of thousands of people accessed, says MoJ'

The personal data of hundreds of thousands of legal aid applicants in England and Wales dating back to 2010, including criminal records and financial details, has been accessed and downloaded in a “significant” cyber-attack. Officials admit that the data may have included contact details and addresses of applicants, their dates of birth, national ID numbers, criminal history, employment status and financial data such as contribution amounts, debts and payments...

The LAA’s online digital services, which are used by legal aid providers to log their work and get paid by the government, have been taken offline. Legal aid providers will be given phone numbers or email addresses to contact as they seek payment for the next few weeks. Officials are attempting to build an upgraded system over the next few weeks that will replace the hacked system...

Weapons Surrender Scheme

Throughout July, knife crime activist and member of the government’s coalition, Faron Paul, will drive across London, the West Midlands and Greater Manchester in a purpose-built and fully secure van, encouraging young people to hand over dangerous and illegal weapons safely. This is the government’s most ambitious weapons surrender scheme to date and will also see a major expansion of anonymous surrender bins in partnership with knife crime charity Words4Weapons. The Home Office is funding 37 new surrender bins across London, the West Midlands and Greater Manchester – the 3 highest areas of knife crime in England and Wales.

Part of the government’s Plan for Change, these initiatives will give young people more options where they can securely hand over weapons, without needing to go to a police station, helping to keep our streets safer and take more weapons out of communities. Young people will also be encouraged to hand in all types of weapons, including ninja swords – which will be banned in full from 1 August...

'Commons justice committee: 'Untenable' for Criminal Cases Review Commission head to continue in post'

MPs today demanded the resignation of the chief executive of the Criminal Cases Review Commission - saying the organisation has shown ‘remarkable inability to learn from its own mistakes’. In an excoriating report Leadership of the Criminal Cases Review Commission, the House of Commons justice committee concludes that it is no longer tenable for barrister Karen Kneller to continue in her role.  

Criticising the CCRC’s leadership, the report questioned Kneller’s evidence to the committee on the impact of being short-staffed. ‘This is further evidence that the CCRC leadership does not appear to us to be treating this issue with the seriousness it warrants,’ it stated. ‘It appears to us that the senior leaders have not been doing enough to challenge the Ministry of Justice and ensure that it has the resources it needs to carry out its functions. We are unclear whether this is due to a lack of robust lobbying on the part of the commission’s leadership or a failing on the Ministry of Justice’s part to provide the commission with the support that it needs’...