The Home Office published its autumn performance report for 2005, showing progress towards achieving its public service agreement targets. The report showed that the Home Office was on track to meet six out of its seven key targets.
Source: Autumn Performance Report 2005, Cm 6707, Home Office, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Home Office press release
Date: 2005-Dec
The Department for Constitutional Affairs published its autumn performance report for 2005, showing progress towards achieving its public service agreement targets.
Source: Autumn Performance Report 2005, Cm 6718, Department for Constitutional Affairs, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2005-Dec
A new book summarized research findings on public attitudes to criminal justice.
Source: Mike Hough and Julian Roberts, Understanding Public Attitudes to Criminal Justice, Open University Press (01280 823388)
Links: Summary
Date: 2005-Nov
The Scottish Executive published a Bill which included a range of measures to strengthen police effectiveness and improve community safety.
Source: Police, Public Order and Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill, Scottish Executive, available from Blackwell's Bookshop (0131 622 8283)
Links: Text of Bill (pdf) | Explanatory notes (pdf) | SE press release
Date: 2005-Oct
A think-tank report said that the government should introduce 'Community Offender Panels' (COPs), to bring the criminal justice system closer to local people and help tackle anti-social behaviour. COPs for adults would be a new tier of local courts below magistrates, and modelled on the successful Youth Offender Panels.
Source: Ben Rogers, New Directions in Community Justice, Institute for Public Policy Research, available from Central Books (0845 458 9911)
Links: IPPR press release
Date: 2005-Oct
A think-tank report examined how new developments in economics could be applied to the analysis of criminal behaviour and used to draw policy conclusions.
Source: Paul Ormerod, Crime: Economic Incentives and Social Networks, Institute of Economic Affairs, available from Lavis Marketing (01865 767575)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary
Date: 2005-Jun
The Department for Constitutional Affairs published its annual report for 2004-05.
Source: Delivering Justice, Rights and Democracy: DCA Departmental Report 2004/05, Cm 6530, Department for Constitutional Affairs, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report (pdf) | Report
Date: 2005-Jun
The government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on target-setting by the Home Office.
Source: Home Office Target Setting: Government reply to third report from Home Affairs Committee session 2004-05, Cm 6592, Home Office, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Response (pdf) | MPs report
Date: 2005-Jun
The Home Office published its annual report for 2004-05 and its corporate plan for 2005-06.
Source: Departmental Report 2004 05, Cm 6528, Home Office, TSO (0870 600 5522) | Corporate Plan 2005 06, Home Office (0870 000 1585)
Links: Report (pdf) | Corporate plan (pdf)
Date: 2005-Jun
A new think-tank book by an American sociologist said that Britain's criminal justice system had "gone soft". The system no longer dispensed justice, or even sought to do so.
Source: Charles Murray, Simple Justice, Civitas (020 7401 5470)
Links: Civitas press release
Date: 2005-Jun
The Prime Minister said that restoring "respect on our streets" would be a key priority of the new Labour government (re-elected in the general election on 5 May 2005). He said: "People are rightly fed up with street corner and shopping centre thugs, yobbish behaviour, sometimes from children as young as 10 or 11, whose parents should be looking after them, of Friday and Saturday night binge drinking that makes our town centres no-go areas for respectable citizens, of the low level graffiti, vandalism and disorder that is the work of a very small minority, it is true, but makes the law abiding majority afraid and angry".
Source: Statement by Prime Minister (Tony Blair MP), 12 May 2005
Links: Text of statement | Guardian report
Date: 2005-May
The Department for Constitutional Affairs published a statement setting out its priorities in the areas of criminal justice and the legal system. It included plans for tighter controls to prevent long criminal trials. It also proposed to limit the amount of time the House of Lords was able to spend scrutinizing government legislation.
Source: Making a Difference: Taking Forward Our Priorities, Department for Constitutional Affairs (020 7210 8500)
Links: Statement (pdf) | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2)
Date: 2005-May
The government published its response to a report by a committee of MPs on the Constitutional Reform Bill (enacted in March 2005).
Source: Constitutional Reform Bill [Lords]: The Government s proposals, Cm 6488, Department for Constitutional Affairs, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Response (pdf) | MPs report
Date: 2005-Apr
The Labour Party published an election manifesto on crime. It promised further investment in tackling the causes of crime, combined with 'tough action' on criminals.
Source: Tackling Crime: Forward not Back, Labour Party (08705 900200)
Links: Manifesto (pdf)
Date: 2005-Mar
The Constitutional Reform Bill was given a third reading. The Bill enshrined in law a duty on government ministers to uphold the independence of the judiciary; transferred the judicial functions of the Lord Chancellor to the President of the Courts of England and Wales; established a new, independent Supreme Court, separate from the House of Lords; and established an independent Judicial Appointments Commission.
Source: Constitutional Reform Bill [HL], Department for Constitutional Affairs, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 1 March 2005, columns 822-927, TSO
Links: Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | Hansard
Date: 2005-Mar
A report by a committee of MPs welcomed the 'positive contribution' that the Welsh Assembly government had made to tackling crime and anti-social behaviour in Wales.
Source: Police Service, Crime and Anti-social Behaviour in Wales, Fourth Report (Session 2004-05), HC 46, House of Commons Welsh Affairs Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2005-Mar
A think-tank report said that the government had failed to learn even the simplest lessons from overseas experience on crime reduction. Key elements of the criminal justice system, including the prison and probation services and the Youth Justice Board, were failing.
Source: David Green, Emma Grove and Nadia Martin, Crime and Civil Society: Can we become a more law-abiding people?, Civitas (020 7401 5470)
Links: Civitas press release | Young People Now report
Date: 2005-Feb
The opposition Conservative party set out its manifesto policies on crime and justice. It said that it would scrap unelected police authorities, which would be replaced by police commissioners accountable to local people. Police officers said that policing must remain fully accountable, but independent of political control.
Source: Action on Crime, Conservative Party (020 7222 9000) | Press release 10 February 2005, Police Federation of England and Wales (020 8335 1000)
Links: Manifesto (pdf) | Police Fed press release (pdf) | Guardian report
Date: 2005-Feb
A report by a committee of MPs on Home Office targets said that inconsistency between 'objectives' and public service agreement 'targets' might generate confusion, and a sense that the targets did not give full expression to the Home Office's strategic direction. It recommended that there should be a consistent relationship between objectives and targets, with objectives stating clearly the Home Office's priorities and the targets giving them concrete expression.
Source: Home Office Target-Setting 2004, Third Report (Session 2004-05), HC 320, House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2005-Feb
The Management of Offenders and Sentencing Bill was published. The Bill established the National Offender Management Service, amalgamating the Prison and Probation Services; amended sentencing guidelines so that judges would be expected to consider prison capacity and conditions when deciding whether a criminal should be jailed or given a community sentence; introduced variable fines (for adults dealt with in magistrates' courts) determined by the disposable income of the offender as well as the seriousness of the offence; and extended electronic tagging for those on community punishments.
Source: Management of Offenders and Sentencing Bill [HL], Home Office, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | Home Office press release | Guardian report
Date: 2005-Jan
A report examined progress in criminal justice reform in Northern Ireland. It criticized the Northern Ireland Office for 'unacceptable delays' in issuing guidance on the use of restorative justice in the criminal justice system.
Source: Third Report of the Justice Oversight Commissioner, Office of the Justice Oversight Commissioner (028 90 332040)
Links: Report (pdf) | NIO press release | Young People Now report
Date: 2005-Jan
The Constitutional Reform Bill was given a second reading. The Bill enshrined in law a duty on government ministers to uphold the independence of the judiciary; transferred the judicial functions of the Lord Chancellor to the President of the Courts of England and Wales; established a new, independent Supreme Court, separate from the House of Lords; and established an independent Judicial Appointments Commission.
Source: Constitutional Reform Bill [HL], Department for Constitutional Affairs, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 17 January 2005, columns 554-662, TSO
Links: Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | Hansard | HOC Library research paper (1) (pdf) | HOC Library research paper (2) (pdf)
Date: 2005-Jan
A report by a committee of MPs examined the Constitutional Reform Bill.
Source: Constitutional Reform Bill [Lords]: The government's proposals, Third Report (Session 2004-05), HC 275, House of Commons Constitutional Affairs Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2005-Jan