Issue 59  13th October 2018

AGFS Scheme 11 Consultation Closed

The consultation for the latest proposed amendments to the Advocates' Graduated Fee Scheme has now closed.

Responses include:

• Bar Council
• Criminal Bar Association
• London Criminal Courts Solicitors' Association
• Young Legal Aid Lawyers

'Exeter prison condemned by inspectors for violence and drug use'

The crisis-struck HMP Exeter prison, one of only four to have been subjected to special emergency action, is “very violent” and has overt drug use that is not regarded as exceptional by staff, according to inspectors.

The prison was inspected in May, prompting the chief inspector of prisons, Peter Clarke, to invoke an urgent notification protocol, requiring the justice secretary to publish an emergency plan. The report on that inspection, published on Tuesday, reveals that the inspector himself entered a cell from which a strong smell of drugs was emanating.

PAVA in Prisons

HMPPS are rolling out PAVA incapacitant sprays to all male category A-D prisons to help keep our prison officers safe and better maintain control when difficult situations arise.

20 Principles of Questioning Updated - Inns of Court College of Advocacy

A revised ‘20 Principles’ document is now available on the ICCA website. The main thrust of the guidance has not changed but the document has been simplified and better explanations provided.

This guidance document came about in 2016 as the profession sought to improve its approach to the cross-examination of children and vulnerable witnesses. This was in response to important appellate court decisions; in particular in R v Lubemba [2014] EWCA Crim 2064, and in response to government initiatives in 2014 to introduce mandatory training.

Criminal Cases Review Commission Chair Speech

We see the evidence of this failure all around us. In the recent high profile collapse of rape and serious sexual offence prosecutions, such as that of Liam Allan, Oliver Mears, Isaac Hay and Samson Mikele. So bad had matters become the CPS commissioned a special review of ongoing prosecutions earlier this year. A review which led to 47 cases being dropped by them on non-disclosure grounds. The CPS say they believe these 47 cases would all have been stopped before trial in any event. Even if true, this, “Well we would almost certainly have got round to dropping the cases in the end” defence is scant comfort to those who will have had to suffer months if not years of unnecessary uncertainty and opprobrium. This Commission routinely refers convictions on non-disclosure grounds. Recent examples include the cases of Embleton, Dunn and Z, all within the last year or two. So I do not myself think that the CPS contention that the existing checks and balances in the system guarantee cases which should be stopped will always be stopped before trial is supported by current evidence.

What underlies this, in my view, is a widespread and worrying lack of grip by too many investigators in the basics of criminal investigation. A lack of grip which is resulting in those who should be brought to justice not being properly investigated, in trials collapsing at the courtroom door or during trial itself; and still worse convictions which prove unsafe and which were entirely avoidable.

Proposed Offences - Protection for Shopworkers

Shopworkers’ trade union leader Paddy Lillis has welcomed an amendment, tabled today, to the Offensive Weapons Bill that will make it a specific offence to obstruct a shopworker in their duty to enforce the law on the sale of offensive weapons. The remaining stages of the Bill are expected to be taken in the House of Commons on Monday 15 October 2018.

Alex Norris MP has also proposed a new set of more general offences covering assaults specifically against retail workers.