Issue 84  6th April 2019

The Home Secretary has lifted 2 conditions in the voluntary Best Use of Stop and Search Scheme by:

• reducing the level of authorisation required for a Section 60 from senior officer to inspector
• lowering the degree of certainty required by the authorising officer so they must reasonably believe an incident involving serious violence ‘may’, rather than ‘will’, occur

The changes to section 60 will initially apply in areas particularly affected by violent crime - London, West Midlands, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, South Wales and Greater Manchester - for up to a year.

The Government’s current approach to prison funding to accommodate growing population forecasts is inefficient, ineffective, and unsustainable in the medium or long-term, says the Justice Committee in a major new report published today.

Reporting on a wide-ranging 18-month inquiry, the Committee agrees with Justice Secretary David Gauke that there is a very strong case for abolishing sentences of six months or less altogether. Re-offending costs an estimated £15 billion a year; the report recommends that there must be a focus on investing services to reduce this, thus cutting crime and reducing the overall size of the prison population - which is increased through repeat imprisonment.

People who witness serious acts of violence should have the same access to specialist support as victims of the crime itself, the Justice Secretary David Gauke has said today (4 April 2019).

The proposals, which include extending the support of the National Homicide Service to witnesses, were put forward at a roundtable today on the justice system’s handling of serious violence – part of the Prime Minister’s week-long summit on the issue.

Teachers, NHS workers and police officers in England and Wales could be held accountable for failing to spot violent crime among young people under government plans announced on Monday.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid has launched a consultation to assess whether there is a "public health duty" to report concerns over children at risk. He said he will use "all the tools" at his disposal to end violent crime. But unions for teachers and NHS staff have raised concerns about the plans.

Fines for large organisations sentenced for health and safety offences have increased as had been anticipated following the introduction of new sentencing guidelines, figures published by the Sentencing Council show.

Analysis carried out by the Sentencing Council of Crown Court judges’ sentencing remarks suggests that the guideline is generally being applied in the manner intended. The Council has considered this analysis, particularly the findings in relation to the fines imposed on smaller organisations and individuals. The Council intends to investigate further the operation of the guideline in due course, and will consider at that stage whether any revision of the guideline is necessary.

The new edition of the BSB Handbook published earlier today adopts the civil standard of proof for professional misconduct proceedings to alleged breaches of the Code by barristers occurring after 31 March.

The standard of proof will change from the criminal standard ("beyond reasonable doubt" or "satisfied so as to be sure") to the civil standard ("on the balance of probabilities" or "more likely than not") for conduct that occurs from 1 April.