Category Archives: UK criminal justice

Shabana Mahmood plans bill to overrule Sentencing Council in ‘two-tier justice’ row

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Ministry of Justice drafts instruction for judges in England and Wales to ignore guidelines on age, sex and ethnicity

Ministers are planning to introduce a last-minute rule change this week to overturn sentencing guidelines that could have led to criminals getting different sentences depending on their age, sex and ethnicity.

Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, is planning to bring a bill to the Commons this week to overrule the guidelines, which are due to come into force in England and Wales on Tuesday.

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Police in England, Wales and NI too overworked to investigate crimes properly – report

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Watchdog finds forces are ‘overwhelmed’ by common offences, and victims are being failed

Overworked police lack the resources, time and experience to investigate crimes properly, leading to victims being failed and an erosion in faith in law enforcement, an official report has found.

The report by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) says that the rate of positive outcomes – when police identify a suspect and they face justice – has crashed from 25% in England and Wales a decade ago to 11% in 2024.

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‘Lifer’ in HMP Woodhill planned to kill Tommy Robinson, high court told

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Two other prisoners also plotted to attack far-right activist, who is challenging his segregation at jail

A “lifer” in the prison holding Tommy Robinson planned to kill the far-right activist while two other prisoners plotted to attack him to gain “kudos and notoriety”, the high court has been told.

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is seeking to bring a legal challenge against his segregation from other prisoners, which he claims is having an impact on his mental health.

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Biased laws and poverty driving huge rise in female prisoners – report

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First such study finds laws on abortion, debt and dress help increase rate of women being jailed twice as fast as for men

Poverty, abuse and discriminatory laws are driving a huge rise in the number of women in prison globally, according to a new report.

With the rise of the far right and an international backlash against women’s rights, the research said there was a risk that laws would increasingly be used to target women, forcing more behind bars.

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MoJ readies extra prison places in case summer riots happen again

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Exclusive: Justice minister James Timpson says more cell capacity means emergency early release schemes won’t be needed

Prisons are being prepared to cope with a sudden influx of offenders in case there is a repeat of last summer’s riots, the justice minister, James Timpson, has told the Guardian.

Hundreds of extra makeshift cells and newly refurbished cells will be in use by the end of this year, officials have disclosed, as the prisons minister said there will be “no more emergency measures” such as early release schemes.

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Eight jailed after posing as electricians to divert power to UK cannabis farms

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Criminals dressed as utilities repair teams dug up roads to access cables to power industrial-scale drug production

A group of eight criminals who dug up roads and diverted electricity to cannabis farms run by organised crime gangs have been jailed by a judge in Liverpool.

The criminals used a legitimate company as cover and pretended to be workers who were digging up the roads to repair utilities in a “sophisticated operation”, according to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

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Extreme online violence may be linked to rise of ‘0 to 100’ killers, experts say

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Criminal justice specialists call for new approach to identify emerging type of murderer with no prior convictions

The rise of “0 to 100” killers who go from watching torture, mutilation and beheading videos in their bedrooms to committing murder suggests there could be a link between extreme violence online and in real life, experts have said.

Criminal justice experts advocated a new approach, inspired by counter-terrorism, to identify an emerging type of murderer with no prior convictions, after cases such as Nicholas Prosper, who killed his mother and siblings and planned a primary school massacre.

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Police to get new powers to find stolen phones in England and Wales

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Warrant will not be required where tracker shows an item is present, as part of raft of measures in crime and policing bill

Police will be able to search properties without a warrant for stolen phones or other electronically geotagged items under the government’s crime and policing bill.

The measure is among dozens in the bill, which will be put before parliament on Tuesday and would mostly apply to England and Wales. It has a particular focus on lower-level offences such as theft and wider antisocial behaviour.

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Retailers to be required to report suspicious or bulk purchases of knives

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New raft of measures labelled Ronan’s law include tougher sentences for those caught selling blades to under-18s

Retailers will be required to report suspicious or bulk purchases of knives, and those caught selling blades to under-18s will face tougher sentences under a new raft of measures to clamp down on young people’s access to weapons labelled Ronan’s law.

Named after Ronan Kanda, the 16-year-old killed in Wolverhampton in 2022 by a teenager carrying a 22in ninja blade he had ordered online, the new laws are part of a raft of anti-knife crime plans announced by the government on Wednesday.

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Prison system crisis due to overreliance on long sentences, says Gauke review

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Successive governments’ ‘penal populism’ has driven England and Wales justice system to brink of collapse, report finds

Successive governments’ overreliance on prison sentences and desire to seem “tough on crime” have driven the justice system in England and Wales to the brink of collapse, an official review has found.

A form of “penal populism” where longer incarceration is seen as the only effective means of punishment has contributed to the crisis in the prison system, according to the interim findings of a review led by former justice secretary David Gauke.

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‘Repeated failures’ at Nottinghamshire prison where three inmates took their lives

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Inquest into deaths of three prisoners within three weeks at HMP Lowdham Grange in 2023 criticises ‘poor leadership’

There were several failings and missed opportunities at an overwhelmed prison where three inmates took their lives in the space of three weeks, an inquest jury has found.

Anthony Binfield, 30, Rolandas Karbauskas, 49, and David Richards, 42, were found in their cells at HMP Lowdham Grange in Nottinghamshire between 6-25 March 2023.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

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Make first-time, low-level offenders go to rehab instead of court, Bar Council suggests

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Exclusive: Barristers also say offenders could pay compensation to victims, in effort to tackle court backlog

First-time offenders in low-level crimes should be diverted from trials by paying compensation to victims or enrolling in rehabilitation to solve the courts crisis, the Bar Council has said.

The government has proposed abandoning jury trials in some cases to tackle the backlog in crown court cases, but the body representing barristers in England and Wales said this was “not a principled response” and would not work.

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‘Basic lack of decency’ driving self-harm in women’s prisons, report says

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Inspectorate points to challenges including ban on using washing machines for knickers and difficulties with family contact

Women in prison are resorting to self-harm because of “astonishing gaps” in basic services including strict time limits when contacting their children and bans from using washing machines for dirty underwear, according to a watchdog’s report.

A survey of women in prisons in England found that “the frustrations of day-to-day life” and a “lack of basic care” were driving many to hurt themselves.

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Just Stop Oil protester, 78, released to home detention after fitting tag found

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Gaie Delap had prison term extended because contractors could not find wrist strap of right size

A 78-year-old climate protester has been released on home detention curfew just a week after her prison term was extended because government contractors were unable to find the right-sized tag for her wrist.

Gaie Delap, 78, a retired teacher and Just Stop Oil protester, was sentenced to 20 months in prison for her participation in a climate protest on the M25 in 2022 and was released last November under the home detention curfew (HDC) scheme.

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Climate activists ‘did what they did out of sacrifice’, appeal court told

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Lawyers invoke philosophies of Hannah Arendt and Henry David Thoreau in bid to have long sentences of 16 protesters quashed

The philosophies of Hannah Arendt and Henry David Thoreau were aired in the court of appeal on Wednesday as 16 climate activists sought to convince England’s most-senior judge to quash their long sentences for disruptive acts of civil disobedience.

The appellants, prosecuted in four separate trials last year, appeared at a mass appeal in London before a panel led by Lady Justice Carr, the Lady Chief Justice, where they argued judges defied decades of precedent by ignoring their conscientious motives.

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Prisons minister aims to close one women’s jail in England and Wales

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Exclusive: Timpson says government plans to reverse rise in female inmates and use alternative forms of punishment

A women’s jail in England or Wales should be closed by diverting offenders to alternative forms of punishment and rehabilitation, the prisons minister, James Timpson has said.

In an interview with the Guardian, the former head of the shoe repair chain said the government planned to reverse the rise in the number of women being sent to jail, around half of whom are mothers.

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Andrew Malkinson calls miscarriage of justice watchdog’s ex-head ‘shameless’

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Helen Pitcher resigned from the CCRC saying she had been ‘scapegoated’ over Malkinson’s case

Andrew Malkinson has called the former head of the miscarriage of justice watchdog “shameless” as she resigned from the job saying she had been “scapegoated for entirely legitimate decisions” taken over his case.

Helen Pitcher handed in her resignation as chair of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) on Tuesday afternoon after learning that an independent panel had concluded by a majority of two to one that she was no longer fit to be chair.

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Ban on naming Sara Sharif care case judges would have ‘corrosive impact’, court told

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Media organisations are challenging ruling that they cannot name three judges involved in proceedings relating to 10-year-old who was later murdered

A unprecedented ban on naming judges who oversaw proceedings related to the care of Sara Sharif before she was murdered is likely to have a “corrosive impact” on public confidence in the justice system, the court of appeal has been told.

Mr Justice Williams ruled in December that the media could not name three judges who oversaw three sets of family court proceedings relating to the 10-year-old schoolgirl over concerns they would be subject to a “virtual lynch mob”. He also said he did not believe the media could be trusted to report matters in a fair, accurate and responsible way.

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Tory police cuts are only part of the ongoing crisis affecting victims of crime

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Austerity affected courts, prisons and public services while rates of poverty surged, creating the conditions for more crime

The period in which clear-up rates for the most serious crimes collapsed coincided with big cuts to police budgets, and the subsequent fall in police officer numbers of about 20,000.

The last Conservative government, responsible for the cuts after 2010 in the name of austerity, spent its time denying they would have any damaging effect on crime fighting in England and Wales. Then, in its final years, it started to reverse the cuts, and pretended “wokery” among law enforcement had diverted officers’ attention.

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Almost 900 weapons seized in a year at Yorkshire young offender institution

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Weapons such as sharpened objects and rocks taken from children aged 15-18 at YOI Wetherby

Almost 900 weapons were seized in one year from children detained in a young offender institution in the north of England, a prisons watchdog has found.

In its annual report published on Friday into HM young offender institution Wetherby in West Yorkshire, the institution’s independent monitoring board found that children were in possession of a range of improvised weapons. The children told IMB they carried the weapons because they felt unsafe behind bars.

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