Issue 407  19th July 2025

The government should produce a ‘clear and consistent’ statement explaining the purpose of prisons to help build a better prison system and reduce reoffending, a House of Lords committee said today. Following an inquiry on prison reform, today’s report from the justice and home affairs committee examines the purpose, leadership and oversight of prisons.

‘Prisons play a role in punishment, protecting the public, reducing reoffending, and preparing prisoners for lives outside. But there is lack of clarity about which of these should be given priority,’ the report says. ‘Our view is that being in prison is the punishment and once there, the focus must be on reducing reoffending. The punishment is the deprivation of liberty. Beyond that, prisoners should be treated with dignity as human beings who are capable of change and deserving of the opportunity to rebuild their self-esteem and their lives.’

The Ministry of Justice was urged to draft a ‘clear and consistent statement of the purpose of prison, with reducing reoffending as central’ that is communicated within the system, across government and to the wider public ‘to build greater support for evidence-based approaches to reducing re-offending’...

Reoffending rates under the government's release scheme are unchanged according to initial analysis, prisons minister Lord Timpson has told the House of Lords. Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers (Nicholas Phillips), inaugural president of the Supreme Court and a former lord chief justice, asked how the reoffending rate of those released early compares with those released after full term. Timpson said: ‘The early release scheme that we inherited from the previous government had a high reoffending rate. The controlled SDS40 [standard determinate sentence 40%], whilst we are still analysing the figures, the themes that I am seeing show that the reoffending rates were no more than we normally see but my overall plan is to reduce reoffending rates generally’...

Published on Tuesday (July 15), this is HMCPSI’s third report into how CPS prosecutes rape cases and follows the CPS’s implementation of a national operating model in July 2023. The model was developed to improve how the police and CPS deal with adult rape cases, promoting earlier collaborative work to build stronger cases.However, inspectors found that the quality of prosecutors’ case analysis was often weak and that the suspect-centric approach had not been embedded into case considerations. This has hampered the ability for prosecutors to identify reasonable lines of inquiry and strengthen cases, over-focusing on victim credibility rather than thinking how they could strengthen the case through investigating the suspect. Prosecutors also need to improve how victims’ issues are considered and dealt with at the earliest stage in the case.

Under three in ten cases fully met the standard for active consideration of applications and ancillary matters to support victims. This included early consideration of special measures, victim personal statements (VPS) and restraining orders. The inspection also identified significant variation across different CPS Areas in the handling of rape cases, including approach to early advice processes and in pre-charge decision timeliness. Inspectors found that there had been closer collaboration between the police and prosecutors. However, HMCPSI could not find evidence of this consistently leading to better quality of decision making or an improvement in how cases could be built and strengthened to support victims...

Racial disparities in the criminal justice system are “shameful” for London, the head of the Metropolitan Police said. Sir Mark Rowley spoke on Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips where he said racial disparity among suspects and victims of crime in the capital was a “difficult” issue for the force. The Met Police Commissioner said there was a history between policing and black communities “where policing has got a lot wrong, and we get a lot more right today. But we do still make mistakes. That’s not in doubt,” Sir Mark added...

Sir Mark went on to say that the criminal justice system was “close-to-broken” and can be “frustrating” for officers. He said: “The thing that is frustrating is that the system – and no system can be perfect – but when the system hasn’t managed to turn that person’s life around and get them on the straight and narrow, and it just becomes a revolving door. When that happens, of course that’s frustrating for officers. So the more successful prisons and probation can be in terms of getting people onto a law-abiding life from the path they’re on, the better. But that is a real challenge. I mean, we’re talking just after Sir Brian Leveson put his report out about the close-to-broken criminal justice system. And it’s absolutely vital that those repairs and reforms that he’s talking about happen really quickly, because the system is now so stressed”...

Two men wrongly convicted in separate trials in the 1970s following allegations made by a corrupt police officer have had their names cleared by the Court of Appeal. Errol Campbell, who died in 2004, was jailed for 18 months for theft and conspiracy to steal while Ronald De Souza, who was part of the group known as the Stockwell Six, was detained for six months for attempted robbery. Both were convicted based on evidence given by British Transport Police (BTP) officer Det Sgt Derek Ridgewell, who was responsible for racist miscarriages of justice. So far, all 13 referred cases have been overturned. Lord Justice Holroyde said it was with "regret" the court could not undo their suffering.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) carried out a range of investigations into the misconduct of Ridgewell, who fabricated evidence that led to convictions that lasted long after his death in prison in 1982. Ridgewell confronted mostly young, black men and falsely accused them of theft and robbery offences, the CCRC said. On Thursday, the Assistant Chief Constable of BTP, Charlie Doyle, said he was "disgusted" by Ridgewell's actions...

The FCA has fined Barclays Bank UK PLC and Barclays Bank PLC a total of £42 million for separate instances of failings in its financial crime risk management – one relating to WealthTek and one relating to Stunt & Co. Barclays Bank UK PLC will make a voluntary payment to WealthTek’s clients.

In the first case, Barclays Bank UK PLC failed to check it had gathered sufficient information to understand the money laundering risk, before opening a client money account for WealthTek. One simple check it could have done was to look at the Financial Services Register before opening the account. Had it done so, it would have seen that WealthTek was not permitted by the FCA to hold client money. Without the right information about WealthTek and how the account would be used, there was an increased risk of misappropriation of client money or money laundering. Clients went on to deposit £34 million into the account..

In the second case, the FCA has fined Barclays Bank PLC £39.3 million for failing to adequately manage money laundering risks associated with providing banking services to Stunt & Co. Barclays did not gather enough information at the start of the relationship or carry out proper ongoing monitoring. In the space of just over a year, Stunt & Co received £46.8 million from Fowler Oldfield, a multimillion-pound money laundering operation. Barclays failed to properly consider the money laundering risks associated with the firm even after receiving information from law enforcement about suspected money laundering through Fowler Oldfield, and after learning that the police had raided both firms...