Issue 40  2nd June 2018

Criminal Cases Review Commission Under Fire

A group of prominent lawyers claim the official body responsible for investigating alleged miscarriages of justice is not fit for purpose.

The lawyers have accused the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which decides whether alleged miscarriages of justice should be referred to the court of appeal, of systemic failures.

AGFS Offer Under Consideration

Heads of chambers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) met last night to discuss the government’s offer. A ballot asking the CBA’s 4,000 members for their opinion is to open next week, with a result is expected on 11 June.

If members accept the offer it will bring an end to the protest action. However, if it is rejected it is expected that the currently suspended ‘no returns’ escalation will come into force.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has offered to put an extra £15 million into the advocates graduated fee scheme (AGFS), which determines how criminal advocates are remunerated in legal aid cases.

'Met police to defer prosecutions for some young offenders'

Britain’s biggest police force is to begin deferring prosecutions for minor offences in an attempt to reduce youth crime and lessen racial bias in the criminal justice system.

The Metropolitan police would start a pilot of the deferred prosecutions scheme as it searched for new ways to stop violence and for longer term solutions, Scotland Yard’s head of countering gang and gun crime told the Guardian.

Deferred prosecutions were one of the key recommendations of a government-backed review of racial inequality in the criminal justice system, which reported last September.

BSB - Changes to Pupillage and BPTC

The BSB has issued a policy statement outlining major changes to pupillage and the BPTC.

Changes to pupillage include:

• the minimum award paid to those undertaking pupillage will be set in line with the wages recommended by the Living Wage Foundation, and will increase annually in line with that figure (If the award were to have been made on this basis in 2018, it would have increased from £12,000pa to £17,212.50pa in London, and £14,765.63pa outside London);
• pupil supervisors will be permitted to supervise up to two pupils (one practising and one non-practising).

Changes to the BPTC include:

• Civil Litigation will be assessed in two papers - a closed book "Civil Litigation and Evidence" exam and an open book "Civil Dispute Resolution" exam;
• Professional Ethics will be assessed twice: an assessment set by BPTC providers and a further BSB centrally-set examination during pupillage;
• the number of sittings each year for the centralised assessments will be increased from two to three;
• "Very Competent" and "Outstanding" grade boundaries will be removed from the centralised assessments, and will be replaced by pass or fail;
• the compulsory Forensic Accountancy and Practice Management courses during pupillage will be removed, but will be replaced with a new mandatory Negotiation Skills course