News
Reports into Criminal Advocacy Standards
Barristers and solicitor advocates representing clients in criminal courts are generally delivering a competent service to the public, two reports released today have found.
Published by the Bar Standards Board and the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the first report explores the views of the judiciary on the current quality, provision and regulation of advocacy within the criminal courts.
The report is here.
New Female Offender Strategy
The Female Offender Strategy (June 2018) launches a new programme of work to improve outcomes for female offenders and make society safer by tackling the underlying causes of offending.
The strategy sets out our vision that custody should be a last resort, reserved for the most serious offences. It makes clear that, where appropriate, women should be given the support they need to address their offending behaviour in community settings, and that early intervention is essential to reduce the number of women entering the justice system. By taking a gender-informed approach, we want to improve the outcomes for female offenders at all points of the system.
'Hillsborough match commander David Duckenfield will go on trial'
The match commander on the day of the Hillsborough disaster David Duckenfield will face trial for the manslaughter by gross negligence of 95 football supporters, a judge has ruled.
'Assessing the impact of the Sentencing Council’s Fraud, Bribery and Money Laundering Definitive Guideline'
Analysis was undertaken to assess the impact on sentence outcomes of the Sentencing Council’s Fraud, Bribery and Money Laundering Offences definitive guideline, which came into force in October 2014.
For all offences analysed, there is no evidence that the guideline caused a change in average sentencing severity. For most offences, average severity either stayed within the expected boundaries (based on historical data) or volumes were too low to assess with robustness whether the guideline had caused a shift.
Upskirting Amendment Proposed
A cross-party group of MPs will seek to close a loophole in the government’s upskirting bill that could have allowed people who took images for financial gain or simply for fun to escape justice.
The bill as drafted only criminalises people taking upskirt photographs for reasons of sexual gratification or to cause distress, but campaigners say it may not cover pictures of celebrities or images taken “for a laugh”.
MPs will propose another amendment to the bill that would also make the distribution of upskirt images a crime.
Cases
R v Khan [2018] EWCA Crim 1472
The court considered the factors to be taken into account when making a criminal behaviour order under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 s.22.
We do not believe that it was the intention of Parliament that criminal behaviour orders should become a mere matter of box-ticking routine. As Beatson LJ said, such orders are not lightly to be imposed; the court should proceed with a proper degree of caution and circumspection; the order must be tailored to the specific circumstances of the person on whom it is to be imposed; and assessments of proportionality are intensively fact sensitive.
Other
Uber Given Licence for London
Uber has been given a short-term probationary licence to operate in London despite criticism from a judge of the company’s “gung-ho” attitude.
The licence was awarded at Westminster magistrates’ court yesterday, despite warnings over the company’s behaviour
The judgment from the Senior District Judge (Chief Magistrate) can be found here.