Compelled Interviews and Interviews Under Caution

In June the Ministry of Justice announced new legislation under the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 which affects NDAs and confidentiality clauses.* Related guidance, published at the beginning of June, sets out the impact of this legislation on the enforceability of such agreements.

In July 2024 the Office for Students (OfS) published guidance on a new condition of registration dealing specifically with harassment and sexual misconduct. That condition, ‘E6’, comes into force on 1 August 2025. As such, universities and colleges have had a year to ensure they comply.

As we await the release of the Netflix series Adolescence this evening by award winning writer Jack Thorne, I am interested to see how the series will deal with very real, yet often publicly unheard problems of how our criminal justice system, in particular the police, manage children who are alleged to have committed serious offences.

Whatever its cause, a backlog of over 73,000 Crown court cases is not acceptable. Delays for complainants, defendants and witnesses all impede justice. In the third quarter of 2024, the Crown court received over 31,683 new cases and disposed of 29,502. The passage of time will not solve the problem. Change is inevitable. 

Artificial intelligence, and its use on social media, is making it continuously harder to distinguish between real and fake information online. Although fact checking is often required when considering written or spoken words, with the advent of so-called “deepfakes”, we now also need to fact check some of the images or videos we see online.

Sextortion is a form of blackmail where victims receive threats that intimate images of them will be shared or distributed unless they meet the blackmailer’s demands to pay money (or other financial demands).   Law enforcement agencies have reported an epidemic of such cases with global figures “more than doubling” in 2023.    This reported increase is reflected in the number of clients seeking our advice on how to deal with this particularly distressing form of criminality.

Mr Jonathan Fisher KC’s ongoing Independent Review of Disclosure & Fraud Offences recently published its “Preliminary Findings & Direction of Travel” report for part one of the review, which relates to the criminal disclosure regime. The report can be found here. 

On 1 April 2024, a number of new and amended sentencing guidelines came into effect, following publication of the results of a consultation by the Sentencing Council which ran during Autumn 2023.

In a landmark case, Nicholas Hawkes, from Basildon, Essex, has become the first person to be convicted and imprisoned in England and Wales for the criminal offence of cyber-flashing. This historic verdict marks a significant moment in the life of the Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA), which aims to combat digital harassment and safeguard online communities.

The police are undertaking the first reported investigation into a “virtual rape”, which is said to have taken place in the metaverse. This case brings to the forefront a number of questions around the adequacy of the UK’s current legislation surrounding sexual offences, and whether it can cater to behaviours taking place in the metaverse.

In a long-overdue announcement by the Home Office, women who were in the past unjustly convicted of same-sex consensual sexual activity will be able to apply for their convictions to be disregarded or pardoned for the first time. This is a significant step forward for queer rights in the UK.

Research reveals overwhelmingly negative experiences of the care system for victims and perpetrators of youth violence.

In March 2023, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) commissioned research on the lived experiences of those who have committed – or experienced – serious youth violence. The findings were published alongside HMICFRS’s report into the policing of these issues and as cross-disciplinary calls increase for a rethink of how  serious youth violence is tackled. In a follow-up to his previous blog, Paul Egunjobi looks at the findings.

On 8^th March 2023, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) published a report examining how well the police tackle serious youth violence. We look at the report and one of the issues it has highlighted: how Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) are used, and how effectively the police work with VRUs and other partner organisations.

Long delays are an all-too familiar part of the criminal justice system. As highlighted in the recent case of BH v Norwich Youth Court, those delays can have a significant impact on young people, particularly when a defendant turns 18 during the long process. An imminent change in the law may improve the situation but there are wider issues to be solved, too. Partner Sandra Paul and paralegal Emma McGrath look at the issues.

Amid increased focus on the regulation of cryptoassets in the UK, law enforcement agencies have carried out unprecedented raids targeting illegally-operated cryptocurrency ATMs.

Channel 4’s, Consent, appeared to be a show with something to say; a show that would draw attention to the complexity of sexual allegations involving school aged children as well as the emotional trauma for all caught in its wake.

The Online Safety Bill hit the headlines last week, following its third and final reading in the House of Commons on 17 January 2023. Since its early stages the Bill has provoked an ongoing debate between social media safety groups, who call for the law to do more to protect children, and civil liberties campaigners, who argue that the proposed legislation impinges on the freedom of speech. The latest proposed amendment would make senior managers criminally liable for platforms’ persistent failure to protect children online. Magda Zima considers the potentially wide-ranging impact of this amendment on both companies and senior individuals.

A damning report published by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) has found police forces to be “overwhelmed and ineffective” in relation to digital forensics. The HMICFRS found that there were more than 25,000 devices waiting to be examined – and this is without taking into account all the devices already in the system.

This blog follows the virtual launch of the Youth Justice Legal Centre Legal Guide on children facing sexual offences. During this event, Maeve Keenan discussed Kingsley Napley's contribution to the report, including recommendations on how to appropriately handle these complex cases and protect the child's welfare.

It’s the knock on the door that parent fear, or is it just me? Thankfully, the Courts have provided some valuable guidance about this nightmare scenario.

There are many reasons the police may want to speak to your child, but few occasions where the reason might be urgent enough to justify an unannounced visit and an arrest.