Issue 414  6th September 2025

Barrister David Lammy MP is to become lord chancellor, secretary of state for justice and deputy prime minister in the government reshuffle triggered by Angela Rayner’s resignation today. Shabana Mahmood, sworn in as lord chancellor in July 2024, becomes home secretary. Lammy, previously foreign secretary, will be the tenth lord chancellor in a decade. He was called to the bar in 1994 and was appointed shadow justice secretary under Keir Starmer in 2020...

Tens of thousands more criminals will be tagged and monitored over the next three years as part of the Government’s Plan for Change to make streets safer... The Government is also introducing, for the first time, a presumption that all prison leavers will be tagged on release as part of intensive supervision with the Probation Service keeping a closer eye on offenders’ behaviour. This means, unless Probation Staff specifically decide not to, any offender leaving prison will be tagged...

The Sentencing Bill follows on from the Independent Sentencing Review led by David Gauke published in May. The Government has already announced it will introduce a new “earned progression model” that will see prisoners who break the rules spend longer than the minimum of 33 or 50 percent in prison, ending automatic release for badly behaved offenders. It was inspired by changes in Texas where crime has since fallen to levels last seen in the 1960s. To enforce this, the Government is toughening the prison punishment regime, so prisoners face up to three months extra in jail for violence or being found with illicit items like phones. Multiple incidents will see punishments added consecutively with constantly violent prisoners potentially spending their whole sentence behind bars as a result...

The Bill also introduces a presumption that prison sentences of a year or less will be replaced with tougher sentences in the community that better punish offenders and stop them reoffending... Offenders who pose a significant risk of harm to an individual or who have breached a court order - including breach of a previous suspended sentence order - will be exempt from this change, meaning judges always have the power to send dangerous offenders or prolific law breakers to prison...

For those offenders who will be punished outside of prison, the Government is toughening up community sentences with a series of new measures:

• Punishments that restrict offenders’ freedom in the community. Judges will be handed new powers to bar criminals from pubs, concerts and sports matches, curtailing offenders’ freedoms as punishment.
• Tough unpaid work orders that force offenders to give back to society. Develop new ways in which offenders can undertake tough, unpaid work. This includes working with local authorities to determine how offenders could give back to their communities, whether by removing graffiti or cleaning up rubbish. Publishing the names and photos of those subject to an unpaid work requirement will demonstrate to the public that justice is being delivered and increase the visibility and transparency of community payback.
• Financial penalties that force offenders to pay back for their crimes. Work to deliver new “income reduction orders” which will see judges able to order offenders to forfeit some of their income as a form of punishment during their sentence...

The Sentencing Bill also introduces measures to better support victims of crime, including:

• New “restriction zones” – welcomed last month by victims’ campaigners Diana Parkes CBE and Hetti Barkworth-Nanton CBE, co-founders of The Joanna Simpson Foundation, and Doreen Soulsby – which will restrict offenders to a certain area, allowing victims to travel without fear of seeing them.
• A judicial finding of domestic abuse in sentencing which will allow criminal justice agencies to identify domestic abusers, ensure they are better monitored, and the right measures are in place to protect victims.

The government is changing the law to stop the Sentencing Council issuing new guidelines to courts in England and Wales without the explicit approval of the justice secretary. Under the new rules, Shabana Mahmood will have veto powers over any new sentencing guidance issued by the independent public body, the Ministry of Justice said. The change comes after a public dispute earlier in the year between the Sentencing Council and the government over pre-sentence reports for offenders from certain minority groups.

Announcing the new measures, Mahmood said "policy must be set by parliamentarians, who answer to the people". The new measure will be brought in as part of the Sentencing Bill, being introduced in the House of Commons on Tuesday. The Sentencing Council is a non-departmental public body that sets out guidance for courts in England and Wales. Both the justice secretary and the lady chief justice, who is the head of the judiciary, will be given individual powers requiring them both to approve any future guidelines before they can be issued by the Sentencing Council. This means that if either oppose the guidance, it will not be issued. The council will also have to seek approval from the justice secretary to sign off its  annual business plan. The Ministry of Justice said the reforms do not interfere with the independence of judges in making individual sentencing decisions...

Victims and witnesses’ interests will be represented by Claire Waxman, who has today (Thursday 4 September) been appointed the next Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales. Ms Waxman has an extensive track record of supporting victims and championing their interests. In her current role as London’s first Independent Victims’ Commissioner, she chaired the capital’s Victims Board to put survivors’ voices at the centre of the Mayor of London’s Police and Crime Plan, worked with the Metropolitan Police to improve their services for victims and tirelessly campaigned for greater support for everyone affected by stalking...

The Victims and Courts Bill, which is currently going through Parliament, strengthens the powers of the Victims’ Commissioner. Under new laws, the Commissioner will be able to act in individual cases that raise systemic issues to ensure lessons are learned to benefit all victims and witnesses, including those affected by antisocial behaviour...

... An amnesty will be held early next year for owners of five models of top-venting blank firearms to be surrendered after tests showed they are illegal. The National Crime Agency (NCA) and police chiefs, funded by the Home Office, commissioned testing of the Bruni guns earlier this year. The results showed they were readily convertible with common DIY tools without specialist skills. The move comes after an amnesty was held this year for four types of Turkish blank firers which resulted in almost 3,000 guns being surrendered. Since 2022, there has been continued evidence of criminal misuse and subsequent recovery of approximately 70 Bruni manufactured imitation firearms that had been criminally converted to fire live ammunition...