Tag: Ministry of Justice

The Lord Chancellor has approved the appointment of Professor Alison Young as the Law Commissioner for Public Law and the Law in Wales for 5 years from 18 March 2024.

The Law Commission was created by the Law Commissions Act 1965 with the role of keeping under review the law of England and Wales with a view to its systematic development and reform. The Law Commission promotes the reform of the law to make it clearer, more modern and more accessible. The Commission’s projects bring real benefits to the public, businesses or other organisations affected by old, complex and out-of-date law.

Appointments to the Law Commission are made by the Lord Chancellor and are regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. This appointment has been made in line with the Governance Code on Public Appointments.

Biography

Professor Young is the Sir David Williams Professor of Public Law at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of Robinson College. She is also an academic associate at 39 Essex Chambers and an Emeritus Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford.

Before joining the University of Cambridge, Professor Young studied for a Law (with French) degree at the University of Birmingham, spending a year at the Université de Limoges. She then completed the BCL and D Phil at Hertford College, University of Oxford. She spent three years as a Tutorial Fellow at Balliol College, Oxford, before returning to Hertford as a Fellow in Law and later Professor of Public Law at the University of Oxford.

Professor Young has not declared any political activity.

Justice Minister Mike Freer has spoken about the benefits of AI which is set to transform the work of lawyers and is being spear-headed by the UK’s thriving lawtech industry.

He took part in sessions during the International Bar Association annual conference to discuss collaboration between UK lawyers and their counterparts around the world.

The UK legal sector generated over £41 billion in revenue in 2021 and is a key UK export industry.

This event comes as the UK Government hosts the first global AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park putting the country at the forefront of promoting action on the safe and responsible development of AI. The UK’s twin role leading on lawtech and AI regulation will help futureproof the country’s world-leading legal services sector without compromising on ethics, accuracy, and quality.

Minister Freer also met Julie Couturier, President of the Paris Bar, and hold talks to help boost trade in legal services between the UK and France which totalled close to £400 million in 2021.

Justice Minister Mike Freer said:

Our thriving legal services market allows us to take our expertise to countries all over the world and brings in billions of pounds to our economy every year.

It is a hugely important area alongside our trailblazing lawtech sector and the conference offers a fantastic opportunity show the world how the UK is harnessing AI technology in law.

Minister Freer spoke at the conference, highlighting the continued importance of using English and Welsh law in contracts around the world, the benefits of international legal collaboration, and how to improve global partnerships between legal firms, governments, and regulatory bodies.

He was accompanied by a delegation of UK legal experts organised by the Ministry of Justice’s GREAT Legal Services campaign, marking the latest in a series of events to promote the UK’s thriving legal services sector internationally.

This engagement follows a meeting between Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary Alex Chalk and French Justice Minister, Eric Dupond Moretti, this summer and wider work to promote UK legal services through GREAT activity.

The GREAT Legal Services campaign was launched in 2017 to promote and support the strength of English and Welsh Law, the UK’s world-renowned independent judiciary, and our legal expertise to the global market.

The International Bar Association conference is the legal sector’s largest international event, with more than 5,000 attendees expected from law firms, governments, and regulators globally.

The recording takes place as close to the time of the offence as possible, while memories remain fresh, and helps victims avoid the stress of giving evidence in a live trial setting, which many find traumatic.

This fee increase seeks to increase the number of barristers available for such hearings to reduce victim dropout rates and bring more rape and sexual assault cases to trial.

A research report published in April found that rape victims who pre-record their evidence are more likely to have a better experience of the court process and find it less intimidating. It also meant they were able to access vital support services earlier, such as therapy, without fear that it could be used against them in cross-examination.

The government is determined to stamp out appalling crimes such as rape and domestic abuse and has launched an action plan to overhaul the criminal justice system to transform support for victims, drive up prosecutions and ensure cases are investigated fully. All three ambitions in this plan have been met eighteen months ahead of schedule, restoring the number of police referrals to the CPS, CPS charges and cases reaching the Crown Court to 2016 levels.

Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary, Alex Chalk, said:

Boosting payments for this work will help more sexual violence victims testify earlier, away from the full glare of a courtroom.

It’s the latest step in our ongoing work to further increase the number of rape victims getting support and justice.

Pre-recording of evidence allows victims and witnesses of crimes such as rape and modern slavery to have their cross-examination video-recorded and played later during trial. This is subject to a successful application to the court.

Fees were originally set at £670 in January when the government announced barristers would receive advance payments for work on pre-recorded evidence and for any wasted preparation for the first time.

This increase comes after an agreed review and as part of the ongoing work with the professional bodies under the new Criminal Legal Aid Advisory Board, chaired by Her Honour Deborah Taylor.

Government investment in the criminal legal aid system is expected to reach £1.2 billion a year, after the recent 15 per cent uplift in barrister fees and fees for most solicitors. This includes:

• police station work, including pre-charge engagement
• magistrates’ court work, including youth court
• Criminal Cases Review Commission work
• advocates’ graduated fees
• expert fees

The fee rise will come into effect as soon as possible when parliamentary time allows.

Note to editors

Fees are increasing from £670 (+VAT) to £1,000 (+VAT)

The Lord Chancellor has approved the appointment of Johanna Robinson as a non-judicial member, with experience of the promotion of the welfare of victims of crime, for 3 years from 5 October 2023.

The Sentencing Council (SC) was established under Section 118(1) of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 to promote greater transparency and consistency in sentencing, whilst maintaining the independence of the judiciary. The SC’s responsibilities include: developing sentencing guidelines and monitoring their use; assessing the impact of guidelines on sentencing practice; and promoting the understanding of and increasing public confidence in sentencing and the criminal justice system.

The appointment of non-judicial SC members is made by the Lord Chancellor after consulting the Lord Chief Justice.

The appointment of non-judicial SC members are regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments and recruitment processes comply with the Governance Code on Public Appointments.

Biography

Ms Robinson was appointed, in September 2022, as one of the National Advisers on Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence for the Welsh Government. She provides expert perspective to the development and implementation of policy across the Welsh Government; working with victims and survivors to ensure their experience informs policy development. From 2016 – 2018, she served as Head of Victims Services for Gwent Police and, from 2013 – 2016, as the National Development Manager for The Survivors Trust.

The Lord Chancellor confirmed plans to bring forward legislation to keep rapists, as well as the most serious sexual offenders, behind bars for the entirety of their sentences, making sure perpetrators of this awful crime do not walk out of prison before the last day of their custodial term.

This builds on action already taken by the government to keep those who pose the greatest danger to society locked up and off our streets, including ending the automatic halfway release for serious sexual and violent offenders and making whole life sentences the default sentence for the most heinous types of murder.

The Lord Chancellor told the Commons that in order for the government to continue to put the worst offenders away for longer, we must think again about how we make the best use of our prisons and ensure there are always enough places to lock up dangerous criminals. These reforms must include giving the lowest risk offenders the greatest chance to turn their lives around.

The Lord Chancellor set how despite the overall reoffending rates falling by almost a quarter since 2010, the public are being failed by short prison sentences that result in some of the lowest risk offenders getting trapped in a revolving prison door. He pointed to the fact these short-term sentences often lead to offenders who could otherwise be turned away from crime losing their jobs and family ties, making them more likely to reoffend.

He noted that reoffending rates are far higher for offenders in prison for under 12 months, and higher again for those in for under six months. While the overall reoffending rate is 25 percent, the rate for people who spend fewer than 12 months in prison is over 50 percent. This goes up to 58% for those who serve sentences of six months of less.

This is also far higher than the 23% for a suspended sentence order with requirements, 38% without requirements, or 34% for those given a community order.

In order to end the merry-go-round of reoffending the government will legislate that there should be a presumption against prison sentences of less than 12 months. Instead of going to prison these offenders can be punished in the community, repaying their debt to society by cleaning up our neighbourhoods and scrubbing graffiti off walls. By remaining in the community these offenders will also be able to better access the drug rehab, mental healthcare and other support that properly addresses the root causes of their offending.

The Lord Chancellor also announced a doubling of the number of GPS tags available to the courts to help them manage offenders in the community. This technology can help make sure offenders go to work and have their freedom curtailed by monitoring with tough curfews of 7am to 7pm on weekdays and up to 20 hours a day on weekends.

Judges and magistrates will still be able to send offenders to prison for less than 12 months if deemed appropriate, such as prolific repeat offenders, as well as anyone unwilling to obey the strict requirements of the sentence – such as breaking curfews, cutting off a GPS tag or breaching a court order to clean up the neighbourhoods they’ve damaged.

During his statement, the Justice Secretary also updated Parliament on our plans to build enough prison places for future demand. He announced up to £400m for more prison places, enough to buy 800 new rapid deployment cells, and 35,000 cells will be refurbished across the estate to bring them up to modern standards.

He also set out new plans for £30m of funding to allow the Prison Service to quickly identify and purchase land in 2024 for new prisons.

This is on top of the government’s commitment to build 20,000 new prison places, the biggest expansion in 100 years. Over 5,500 of these are already built, with a further 3,000 expected to be ready in the next two years.

To help manage the prison population further a new Annual Report will be laid in Parliament setting out how the demands on prison places and how they will be met.

Further reforms that were outlined today include:

• Stepping up work to remove thousands of foreign prisoners by deporting them earlier and agreeing more transfer agreements with other countries
• Legislating to allow prisoners to be held in overseas prisons
• Reviewing the incentives around early guilty pleas, to save the courts time and spare victims the ordeal of giving evidence in court
• Looking at options to tackle the injustice of the now abolished Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence and how the licence period could be reduced to restore greater proportionality to the IPP sentence

The Lord Chancellor also acknowledged how the pandemic, combined with last year’s barristers’ strike, had impacted the justice system and put pressure on our prison estate. This has contributed to around 6,000 more prisoners being held on remand in prison than before the pandemic.

Despite bringing online 100 places per week this year – the fastest living in memory – to keep up with this unprecedented demand, pressure remains.

The Lord Chancellor confirmed that in order make sure we have the prison places we need to lock up the most dangerous offenders and to ensure safety in the prison estate, he has agreed to use an existing power to allow the prison service to move some less serious offenders on to licence a few days before their automatic release point.

The Prison Service will exclude offenders who do not meet strict criteria. Offenders will be supervised by the probation service and placed under strict licence conditions – which may include GPS tags and curfews. Breach of these conditions could lead to the offender being instantly recalled to prison for the entire second half of their sentence.

It will be limited to lower-level offenders and will not apply to anyone convicted of sexual or terrorist offences or serious violent offences.

Every single offender will be placed under strict licence conditions which provide a step-down from custody to living in the community. This may include having to live at an address approved by their probation officer, attending appointments, not entering certain areas such as postcodes and being made to wear an electronic tag where needed to manage them safely. Breach of these conditions could lead to the offender being recalled to custody – not just for 18 days, but the remainder of their sentence.

Those serving a sentence for any kind of sexual offence, terror offence or where the sentence is longer than four years for a serious violent offence will automatically be ruled out.

Such schemes have operated recently in France, Belgium, Ireland and California either due to overcrowding or due to the risk the Covid-19 pandemic presented to prisoners.

The package of reforms involves legislation being introduced and further details will be announced when parliamentary time allows.

The Interim Commissioner, who has been appointed for a term of 12 months, will play a vital role in scrutinising the Victims and Prisoners Bill as it progresses through Parliament, ensuring it serves its purpose to improve victims’ experiences of the criminal justice system.

Baroness Newlove brings a wealth of experience having previously served as Victims’ Commissioner between 2013 and 2019. During that time she laid the groundwork to enshrine victims’ rights in law through the Victims Strategy, improved their experiences in court and led important reviews on anti-social behaviour, the Victim’s Code, and reforms to the Parole system.

The Victims’ Commissioner promotes the interests of victims and witnesses, encourages good practice in their treatment, and regularly reviews the Code of Practice for Victims which sets out the services victims can expect to receive.

The decision to appoint a temporary Commissioner has been made to enable a new recruitment campaign to be launched which better reflects the new responsibilities the role will have once the Victims and Prisoners Bill is passed.

Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice Alex Chalk said:

As a tireless advocate and campaigner for victims’ rights, there is no safer pair of hands than Baroness Newlove to hold this position as we recruit a permanent Victims’ Commissioner.

This role is vital in holding the Government and criminal justice agencies to account and being the voice for those affected by crime, and I very much look forward to working with her.

Interim Victims Commissioner, Baroness Newlove said:

I am honoured and it is a privilege to be re-appointed Victims’ Commissioner for the coming year.

I know first-hand the emotions and the pain victims experience on their journey through the criminal justice system.  I am also aware of the many challenges they have faced in recent years. That’s why I am so passionate about championing their cause. I want to see their needs and rights at the forefront of our criminal justice system.

My priority this year is to ensure the Victims and Prisoners Bill, currently making its way through Parliament, truly delivers for all victims. I want to see this Bill transform the victim experience so that victims feel heard, respected, and supported throughout the criminal justice process. This has long been my aspiration and this Bill is an opportunity to make it a reality.

I look forward to continuing my work as the voice of victims, working with Ministers, criminal justice agencies and the organisations supporting victims to promote best practice in victims’ services.

Baroness Newlove has relentlessly campaigned for victims since the tragic death of her husband Garry in 2007 who was murdered outside of their family home in an attack fuelled by alcohol and drugs. Following her 2 terms as Victims’ Commissioner, she has continued to promote the voices of victims in the House of Lords.

The Victims and Prisoners Bill which will shortly return to the House of Commons enshrines the principles of the Victims’ Code in law, meaning that where appropriate, victims will have the right to:

• challenge decisions which directly impact them, for example getting the CPS or police to review why their case has been dropped in the most serious cases like rape and domestic abuse
• receive information to help them understand the criminal justice process, such as on claiming compensation, how their case is progressing and its outcome
• access vital support services such as Independent Sexual Violence Advisors and Independent Domestic Violence Advisors
• have the opportunity to make their views heard, for example being able to ask to read out their Victim Personal Statements in court

The Victims and Prisoners Bill also bolsters the role of the Victims’ Commissioner by requiring authorities within their remit to publicly respond to their recommendations and set out the rationale for accepting or rejecting them.

A recruitment campaign has been launched to re-appoint the role of Independent Advisor to the Rape Review who will work alongside the Victims Commissioner.

Notes to editors

• Baroness Newlove will be in post from 17 October 2023 until 16 October 2024. A recruitment campaign for a permanent Victims Commissioner will be launched and is due to conclude in summer 2024
• The Victims and Prisoners Bill was introduced into Parliament on 29 March, 2023. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/victims-placed-at-heart-of-justice-system-under-radical-shakeup
• You can find a link to the application page for the role of Independent Advisor to the Rape Review on GOV,UK

Biography of the Victims’ Commissioner:

• Baroness Helen Newlove is a community reform campaigner and activist. She came to prominence after her husband Garry Newlove was murdered outside the family home by a gang of youths, all alcohol and drug-fuelled, in 2007. After his death she campaigned to tackle anti-social behaviour and the underage and binge drinking culture.
• Helen was given a peerage in the 2010 Dissolution Honours list and sits in the House of Lords as Baroness Newlove of Warrington in the County of Cheshire.
• She originally took up the post of Victims’ Commissioner on 4 March 2013, was reappointed for a second term in March 2016, and stepped down on 31 May 2019. She was succeeded by Dame Vera Baird.
• On 5 March 2021, Baroness Newlove took up the office of Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords.