The Home Office published its autumn performance report, detailing progress being made towards its public sector agreement targets.
Source: Home Office Targets: Autumn Performance Report 2006, Cm 6995, Home Office, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | BBC report | FT report
Date: 2006-Dec
The Department for Constitutional Affairs published its autumn performance report, detailing progress being made towards its public sector agreement targets.
Source: Autumn Performance Report 2006, Cm 6973, Department for Constitutional Affairs, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2006-Dec
The Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Bill was given a second reading. The Bill was designed to provide for jury reform and a new system of non-jury trial, following the repeal of the Diplock Court system; and to extend the powers of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.
Source: Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Bill, Northern Ireland Office, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 13 December 2006, columns 893-974, TSO
Links: Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | Hansard
Date: 2006-Dec
A new book examined policy transfer in the field of criminal justice and crime control. It focused on policy transfer from the United States of America to the United Kingdom, and undertook a detailed examination of the processes of policy change in three key areas: the privatization of corrections, 'two strikes' and 'three strikes' sentencing, and 'zero tolerance' policing.
Source: Trevor Jones and Tim Newburn, Policy Transfer and Criminal Justice, Open University Press (01280 823388)
Links: Summary
Date: 2006-Dec
A new book examined the new forms of governance required to deal with the rapid growth of the private security industry.
Source: Benjamin Goold and Lucia Zedner, Crime and Security, Ashgate Publications (01235 827730)
Links: Summary
Date: 2006-Nov
The Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006 was given Royal assent. The Act gave police and communities stronger powers to tackle violent crimes involving alcohol, knives and imitation guns. It doubled the maximum penalty for possession of a knife from two years in prison to four years, and gave local authorities the right to charge alcohol vendors for the costs of fighting alcohol-related crime in areas with serious crime problems. The Act also gave school staff the right to search pupils for weapons.
Source: Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006, Home Office, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Text of Act | Home Office press release
Date: 2006-Nov
The Police and Justice Act 2006 was given Royal assent. The Act was designed to improve policing standards, and strengthen police powers to deal with anti-social behaviour. Key measures included: establishing a Police Improvement Agency; standardization of community support officer powers; and aligning basic command unit and crime and disorder reduction partnership boundaries with those of local authorities.
Source: Police and Justice Act 2006, Home Office, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Text of Act | Home Office press release
Date: 2006-Nov
The government announced (in the Queen's Speech) that it would introduce an Organised Crime Bill. The Bill would establish a new Serious Crime Prevention Order to prevent organized crime by individuals, or organizations, by imposing restrictions on them; introduce new offences of encouraging or assisting a criminal act with intent, or encouraging or assisting a criminal act believing that an offence might be committed; and strengthen the recovery of criminal assets by extending powers of investigation and seizure to all accredited financial investigators.
Source: Queen's Speech, House of Commons Hansard, 15 November 2006, column 1, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Speech | Downing Street Briefing | Liberty press release | Times report | FT report (1) | FT report (2) | BBC report | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2)
Date: 2006-Nov
A briefing paper examined the relationship between welfare expenditure and levels of punishment in different countries. It said that a substantial welfare state was increasingly a principal, if not the main, protection against the resort to mass imprisonment in the era of globalization.
Source: David Downes and Kirstine Hansen, Welfare and Punishment: The relationship between welfare spending and imprisonment, Crime and Society Foundation (020 7848 1685)
Links: Briefing
Date: 2006-Nov
A new book brought together ten leading criminologists to explore the contemporary politics of crime and its control.
Source: Tim Newburn and Paul Rock (eds.), The Politics of Crime Control: Essays in honour of David Downes, Oxford University Press (01536 741727)
Links: Summary
Date: 2006-Sep
An article examined recent major developments in key areas of criminal justice policy in Scotland, and the reasons why there had been greater convergence with policy south of the border than might have been expected.
Source: Hazel Croall, 'Criminal justice in post-devolutionary Scotland', Critical Social Policy, Volume 26 Issue 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2006-Aug
The Police, Public Order and Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act received Royal assent. The Act gave police additional powers to tackle knife crime, football violence, and drug-related crime; prevent the anti-social use of fireworks; and identify suspects more effectively.
Source: Police, Public Order and Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2006, Scottish Executive, available from Blackwell's Bookshop (0131 622 8283)
Links: Text of Act
Date: 2006-Jul
The Home Office published its annual report for 2005-06.
Source: Departmental Report 2006, Cm 6818, Home Office, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2006-Jul
A report by a committee of MPs criticized poor financial and project management in the Home Office.
Source: Home Office Resource Accounts 2004-05 and Follow-up on Returning Failed Asylum Applicants, Sixtieth Report (Session 2005-06), HC 1079, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | IAS press release | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2006-Jul
The government announced a wide-ranging reform programme for the Home Office. The Immigration and Nationality Directorate would become a 'shadow' executive agency, at arm's length from ministers, by 2007. A new top management team would be created, with better leadership skills. The size of the Home Office headquarters would be reduced, devolving responsibilities to local communities.
Source: From Improvement to Transformation, Home Office (0870 000 1585)
Links: Plan | Hansard | Home Office press release | PCS press release | IAS press release | Guardian report | FT report
Date: 2006-Jul
The Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2006 was given Royal assent. The Act provided for the future transfer of policing and justice powers to the Northern Ireland Executive.
Source: Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2006, Northern Ireland Office, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Text of Act | Explanatory notes to Bill | HOC brief
Date: 2006-Jul
The government announced a 24-point package of criminal justice reforms, including the provision of a further 8,000 prison places and longer sentences for the most serious criminals. It cancelled plans to introduce a 'custody plus' sentence which would have allowed 60,000 less serious offenders each year to leave after a short spell of imprisonment. It proposed abandoning the regime under which judges automatically halved the sentence tariffs for dangerous offenders on new indeterminate or unlimited sentences. An automatic one-third sentence discount for those who entered an early guilty plea would also be scrapped. But the government said that it would not seek to amend the Human Rights Act.
Source: Rebalancing the Criminal Justice System in Favour of the Law-abiding Majority: Cutting crime, reducing reoffending and protecting the public, Home Office (0870 000 1585)
Links: Report | Home Office press release | Parole Board press release | Howard League press release | ACPO press release | YMCA press release | Guardian report | BBC report | Times report | FT report
Date: 2006-Jul
A think-tank report said that the government's drive to improve the effectiveness of the criminal justice system was failing to address some of the most serious offences. Rather than pursuing a hopeless quest to drive up the conviction rate, the government should be taking seriously the social and economic causes of crime.
Source: Richard Garside, Right for the Wrong Reasons: Making sense of criminal justice failure, Crime and Society Foundation (020 7848 1685)
Links: Report | CSF press release | BBC report
Date: 2006-Jul
The Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs responded to a letter from the Prime Minister setting out priorities for his department (sent following a ministerial reshuffle in May 2006).
Source: Letter from Lord Falconer (Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs), 13 July 2006
Links: Text of letter
Date: 2006-Jul
The Prime Minister said that there was a need to build a consensus on how to deal with problems of crime, immigration, and security. A proper, considered debate was needed, which returned to "first principles" unconnected to the "convulsion of the issue of the moment." Unless there was a "rebalancing of the system" there would continue to be a conflict between protecting suspects and the rights of the law-abiding majority. There needed to be "a complete change of mindset" in the justice system - with tougher punishments, faster prosecutions in the courts, more prison places, greater use of summary justice for anti-social behaviour, tighter monitoring of drug offenders, and tailor-made services for the victims of crime.
Source: Speech by Tony Blair MP (Prime Minister), 23 June 2006
Links: Text of speech | Downing Street press release | Guardian report
Date: 2006-Jun
The Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill was given a third reading. The Bill was designed to permit the future transfer of policing and justice powers to the Northern Ireland Executive.
Source: Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, Northern Ireland Office, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 17 May 2006, columns 1011-1100, TSO
Links: Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | Hansard | HOC brief
Date: 2006-May
The Prime Minister wrote to the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs (following a Cabinet reshuffle), setting out policy priorities in the areas of: improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the courts; implementing legal aid reforms; constitutional reforms (establishment of Supreme Court and Judicial Appointments Commission); improving public confidence in human rights legislation; and delivering the next stage of House of Lords reform, based on the maximum possible consensus.
Source: Letter from Tony Blair MP (Prime Minister) to Lord Falconer (Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs and Lord Chancellor), 15 May 2006
Links: Letter
Date: 2006-May
The Prime Minister wrote to the newly appointed Home Secretary (following a Cabinet reshuffle), setting out policy priorities in the areas of: management of offenders; asylum and immigration; counter-terrorism strategy; crime and policing; the Respect Action Plan; management of drug-users; serious and organized crime; the introduction of identity cards; and the issue of human rights rulings by the courts.
Source: Letter from Tony Blair MP (Prime Minister) to John Reid MP (Secretary of State for the Home Department), 15 May 2006
Links: Letter
Date: 2006-May
The Prime Minister said that the criminal justice system was the public service ?most distant? from what reasonable people expected. He called for a shake-up of the criminal justice system to ensure that the security of the law-abiding was put ahead of the rights of offenders.
Source: Speech by Tony Blair MP (Prime Minister), 15 May 2006
Date: 2006-May
A think-tank report examined the extent to which the outcomes of the criminal justice system could be aligned with the government's social justice aims; and the ways in which the justice system as a whole could become more responsive to the communities with which it interacted, and more engaged with the national and local agencies which served them.
Source: Ben Shimshon (ed.), Social Justice: Criminal Justice, Smith Institute (020 7592 3618)
Links: Report
Date: 2006-Mar
The Police and Justice Bill was given a second reading. The Bill was designed to improve policing standards, and strengthen police powers to deal with anti-social behaviour. Key measures included: establishing a Police Improvement Agency; standardization of community support officer powers; and aligning basic command unit and crime and disorder reduction partnership boundaries with local authorities.
Source: Police and Justice Bill, Home Office, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 6 March 2006, columns 608-693, TSO
Links: Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | Hansard | APA press release
Date: 2006-Mar
The government published a five-year strategy to reduce re-offending. The total number of hours of unpaid work carried out as part of community sentences would double to almost 10 million hours. Community prisons would be used to maintain family ties and facilitate the process of reintegration for those leaving custody.
Source: A Five Year Strategy for Protecting the Public and Reducing Re-offending, Cm 6717, Home Office, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Strategy | Home Office press release | Hansard | NACRO press release | Guardian report
Date: 2006-Feb
An article said that the government had "traduced" the results of independent research on crime trends and policy.
Source: Tim Hope, 'Things can only get better', Criminal Justice Matters, Number 62
Links: Article
Date: 2006-Feb
An article said that research carried out under the aegis of the Home Office served the purposes of the government. It called for the development of a criminology that challenged the existing social order, and a boycott of all Home Office and corporate-funded research.
Source: Reece Walters, 'Boycott, resistance and the role of the deviant voice', Criminal Justice Matters, Number 62
Links: Article
Date: 2006-Feb
The Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill was published. The Bill was designed to permit the future transfer of policing and justice powers to the Northern Ireland Executive. The government also published a related discussion document.
Source: Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, Northern Ireland Office, TSO (0870 600 5522) | Devolving Policing and Justice in Northern Ireland: A discussion paper, Northern Ireland Office (028 9052 0700)
Links: Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | Discussion Paper | NIO press release | BBC report
Date: 2006-Feb
The Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill was given a second reading. The Bill was designed to place the Civil Service Code of impartiality and professionalism on a statutory footing, and make any change to the Code subject to Parliamentary approval; remove the hereditary principle from the House of Lords, and allow for the disqualification of peers found guilty of serious criminal offences; repeal the legislation that limited protests around Parliament; and remove the Prime Minister from involvement in all judicial appointments in England and Wales.
Source: Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill, Ministry of Justice, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 20 October 2009, columns 799-878, TSO
Links: Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | Hansard | MOJ press release
Date: 2006-Jan
The Police and Justice Bill was published. The Bill was designed to improve policing standards, and strengthen police powers to deal with anti-social behaviour. Key measures in the Bill included: the establishment of a Police Improvement Agency to drive improvements in the police service, streamline functions and free up more resources for front-line policing; standardization of community support officer powers; and aligning basic command unit and crime and disorder reduction partnership boundaries with local authorities, so that they could work together more effectively to reduce crime. Plans to privatize the probation service were dropped.
Source: Police and Justice Bill, Home Office, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | Home Office press release | ACPO press release | Guardian report
Date: 2006-Jan