Blog
Rayner my parade! The importance of specialist advice.
Jemma Brimblecombe
28 March 2017
New measures to support victims of sex crime should not be rushed into
On the 19 March 2017, in an exclusive interview with The Sunday Times, The Justice Secretary, Elizabeth Truss, announced that from September 2017 adult complainants in trials for sexual offences will be able to choose to have their cross-examination pre-recorded in advance of the trial. This follows a similar pilot scheme run since the beginning of 2014 at three crown courts (Kingston, Leeds and Liverpool) for child witnesses and those with mental or physical disorders.
10 February 2017
Sexual offences committed by children against other children is on the rise -shocking or inevitable?
The news last week revealed that the number of children that the police are investigating for committing child sexual offences has almost doubled in the last four years. These figures relate to instances where the person alleged to have committed the offence and the alleged victim are both aged under 18. They were obtained by the children’s charity Barnardo’s following a freedom of information request.
17 March 2016
Education, Education, Education: Plans to transform youth custody in England and Wales set out
Plans to transform youth custody in England and Wales have been set out (9 February 2016) in a report commissioned by the Ministry of Justice and prepared by behavioural expert and former head teacher Charlie Taylor. Secretary of State for Justice, Michael Gove, commissioned the review in September 2015. The review is examining evidence on what works to prevent youth crime and rehabilitate young offenders, and how this is applied in practice. It asks how the youth justice system can most effectively interact with wider services for children and young people, and considers whether the current delivery models and governance arrangements remain “fit for purpose” and achieve “value for money”.
11 February 2016
Fitness to plead - time to codify the test?
Following a consultation paper in 2010 and an issues paper in 2014, on 13 January 2016 the Law Commission published its report on unfitness to plead. In that report the Commission criticised the current test for being outdated, inadequate and inconsistent. As a result of these shortcomings, it held that the test was failing its purpose, namely to “accurately and efficiently identify those defendants who…have such impairments in their ability to participate in proceedings that they could not fairly be tried”. We identify the criticisms made by the Commission and its proposals for reform.
11 February 2016
Tackling knife crime – A new police initiative and tougher sentencing announced
According to recent press, between 2014 and 2015 the Office of National Statistics recorded that possession of knife offences increased by 10%, sexual assaults with knives by 28%, and knife assaults by 13%. These figures spurred the Metropolitan Police to launch Operation Sceptre, a campaign to combat knife crime through tactics ranging from outreach programmes and knife amnesties to increased patrols and weapon sweeps. There is no official definition of ‘knife crime’ but the term broadly encompasses any offence involving a knife regardless of whether it was used to inflict harm. This week saw a series of initiatives against such crime as part of the ongoing campaign of Operation Sceptre, including the use of the hashtag, #StopKnifeCrime.