The government began consultation (lasting just 6 weeks over Christmas and New Year holidays) on proposals to restrict people's access to judicial review.
Source: Judicial Review: Proposals For Reform, Cm 8515, Ministry of Justice, TSO
Links: Consultation document | Hansard
Date: 2012-Dec
The Justice and Security Bill was given a second reading. Oversight of the intelligence services would be strengthened, and courts would be allowed to consider sensitive information with national security implications through the limited use of closed proceedings.
Source: Justice and Security Bill [HL], Ministry of Justice, TSO | Debate 18 December 2012, columns 713-804, House of Commons Hansard, TSO
Links: Bill | Explanatory notes | Hansard | HOC research brief
Date: 2012-Dec
A new book examined the relationship between social policy and crime, and the impact of social policy trends on the lives of offenders.
Source: Hazel Kemshall (ed.), Crime and Social Policy, Wiley
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Dec
A new book examined the state's use of coercion for the purpose of preventing harm, and the normative questions raised by preventive measures in and on the borders of the criminal process, criminal law, and punishment.
Source: Andrew Ashworth, Lucia Zedner, and Patrick Tomlin (eds), Prevention and the Limits of the Criminal Law, Oxford University Press
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Dec
A new textbook provided an introduction to the theoretical, policy, and operational issues faced by the criminal justice systems in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
Source: Azrini Wahidin and Nicola Carr, Understanding Criminal Justice: A critical introduction, Routledge
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Dec
A new book examined the social, political, economic, and historical conditions giving rise to contemporary forms of punishment.
Source: Jonathan Simon and Richard Sparks (eds), The SAGE Handbook of Punishment and Society, SAGE Publications
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Nov
The first in a new annual series of reviews examined criminal justice policy over the year to May 2011, and presented key data on the criminal justice system.
Source: Richard Garside and Helen Mills, UK Justice Policy Review: Volume 1, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (King's College London)
Links: Report | CCJS press release
Date: 2012-Nov
A new book examined the development of criminal law in the context of the European Union, asked whether this had led to a European criminal policy, and considered the legal effects of European-level initiatives on national criminal law and on suspects.
Source: Samuli Miettinen, Criminal Law and Policy in the European Union, Routledge
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Nov
A new book examined contemporary theories of punishment. It considered the communicative theory of punishment, restorative justice, and the unified theory of punishment. It also included case studies on capital punishment, juvenile offending, and domestic abuse. It highlighted the problems and prospects of different approaches, and argued for a more pluralistic perspective.
Source: Thom Brooks, Punishment, Routledge
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Nov
A new book examined the policy-making process in the criminal justice system of England and Wales.
Source: Adrian Barton and Nick Johns, The Policy Making Process in the Criminal Justice System, Routledge
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Oct
The Prime Minister said that the debate on crime and punishment had become too polarized between the aims of retribution and rehabilitation. He said that serious offenders needed to be imprisoned, but that jails needed to have a 'positive impact' on inmates. He reaffirmed his support for a 'rehabilitation revolution' for prisoners. At the same time the Secretary of State for Justice announced an expanded role for private firms and charities in rehabilitation work with offenders, based on the model of payments by results – although a pilot scheme had yet to be evaluated.
Source: Speech by David Cameron MP (Prime Minister), 22 October 2012
Links: Speech | Video link | CAF press release | Catch22 press release | CBI press release | MJW press release | Turning Point press release | UCU press release | Victim Support press release | Young Foundation press release | BBC report | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2) | Guardian report (3) | Telegraph report (1) | Telegraph report (2)
Date: 2012-Oct
The coalition government said that its 'current thinking' was that the United Kingdom would exercise its right to opt out of 130 European Union police and criminal justice measures, and then negotiate with the European Commission and other member states to opt back into those individual measures that it was in the national interest to rejoin.
Source: Debate 15 October 2012, columns 34-45, House of Commons Hansard, TSO
Links: Hansard | BBC report | Guardian report | Statewatch analysis
Date: 2012-Oct
A paper examined the implications of protocol 36 to the Lisbon Treaty, which gave the United Kingdom the right to opt out en bloc of all the police and criminal justice measures adopted under the Treaty of Maastricht ahead of the date when the Court of Justice would acquire jurisdiction in relation to them. It challenged the assumption by those who advocated using the opt-out that it would completely remove the UK from the sphere of European Union influence in matters of criminal justice and that it could be exercised cost-free.
Source: Alicia Hinarejos, John Spencer, and Steve Peers, Opting out of EU Criminal Law: What is actually involved?, Working paper 1, Centre for European Legal Studies (University of Cambridge)
Links: Paper | CELS press release
Date: 2012-Oct
The Scottish Government published a strategy for justice – defined broadly to encompass criminal, civil, and administrative justice as well as community safety. It said that its outcomes-focused and evidence-based approach had succeeded in delivering significant progress to date, but that there was much work still to be done.
Source: The Strategy for Justice in Scotland, Scottish Government
Date: 2012-Sep
An article examined conflicts of justice in Europe. Although European Union law could be understood as an instrument for the incorporation of the demands of justice and the articulation of 'the good' beyond the nation state, it also potentially skewed the distributive criteria and assumptions of justice that underlay the national welfare state. In the absence of a transnational political system that could bound such conflicts of justice, the author suggested that the capacity of the EU to contribute to, rather than detract from, the attainment of justice depended on the careful articulation and institutionalization of the different types of transnational solidarity that existed in Europe.
Source: Floris de Witte, 'Transnational solidarity and the mediation of conflicts of justice in Europe', European Law Journal, Volume 18 Issue 5
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Aug
A report by a committee of MPs said that the Ministry of Justice had made improvements to its structure and performance since its creation in 2007: but it was 'still too much in thrall' to the prison service. Better integrated offender management would enable the Ministry to make the financial savings demanded of it, and also provide a more effective service to clients, users, and the wider public – and in particular to achieve its key objective to reduce reoffending.
Source: The Budget and Structure of the Ministry of Justice, Second Report (Session 2012–13), HC 97, House of Commons Justice Select Committee, TSO
Links: Report | Oral and written evidence | BBC report
Date: 2012-Aug
A new book presented a theory of criminal careers using the Home Office Offenders Index (a database of all criminal convictions in England and Wales since 1963). It said that the theory accurately predicted the prison population contingent on a given sentencing policy. Increasing the probability of conviction after each offence was the most effective way of reducing crime, although there was a role for treatment programmes for some offenders.
Source: John MacLeod, Peter Grove, and David Farrington, Explaining Criminal Careers: Implications for justice policy, Oxford University Press
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Aug
The government published a White Paper on criminal justice reform in England and Wales. It included plans to speed up court cases, improve transparency, and engage local communities in dealing with low-level offending.
Source: Swift and Sure Justice: The government s plans for reform of the criminal justice system, Cm 8388, Ministry of Justice, TSO
Links: White Paper | MOJ press release | Home Office press release | ACPO press release | CMH press release | Justice Gap press release | Labour Party press release | Victim Support press release | BBC report | Telegraph report
Date: 2012-Jul
The Scottish Government began consultation on proposals to overhaul Scotland's system for investigating and prosecuting crime, including the removal of the requirement for corroboration and reform of arrest and detention.
Source: Reforming Scots Criminal Law and Practice: The Carloway Report, Scottish Government
Links: Consultation document | Scottish Government press release
Date: 2012-Jul
The Ministry of Justice published its annual report for 2011–12.
Source: Annual Report and Accounts 2011–12, HC 67, Ministry of Justice, TSO
Links: Report
Date: 2012-Jul
The Home Office published its annual report for 2011–12.
Source: Annual Report and Accounts 2011–12, HC 45, Home Office, TSO
Links: Report
Date: 2012-Jul
The European Commission published a strategy designed to tackle human trafficking, bringing together a wide range of legislative and policy measures to prioritize the protection of children against sexual exploitation, forced labour, begging, criminal activities, and the removal of organs.
Source: The EU Strategy Towards the Eradication of Trafficking in Human Beings 2012-2016, European Commission
Links: Strategy | European Commission press release | European Parliament press release
Date: 2012-Jun
The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 was given Royal assent. The Act (mainly relating to England and Wales) cut access to legal aid, introduced tougher punishment for certain crimes (such as knife crime), promoted a 'rehabilitation revolution' to prevent offenders committing further crime, outlawed squatting, created tougher community sentences, replaced the Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence, and doubled to 30 years the starting point for sentences for murders motivated by hate on grounds of disability or transgender.
Source: Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, Ministry of Justice, TSO
Links: Act | Explanatory notes | MOJ press release
Date: 2012-May
The Queen's Speech set out the coalition government's legislative programme for 2012-13. It included plans for:
• A Crime and Courts Bill. A National Crime Agency would be created to take the lead on organized crime, enhance border security, and fight cyber crime. Television cameras would be allowed into courtrooms 'in limited circumstances'.
• A Justice and Security Bill. Oversight of the intelligence services would be strengthened, and courts would be allowed to consider sensitive information with national security implications through the limited use of closed proceedings.
• A Draft Communications Data Bill. The police and intelligence agencies would be given powers to collect data on communications, such as texts and emails.
Source: Queen's Speech, 9 May 2012, columns 3-5, House of Commons Hansard, TSO
Links: Hansard | Cabinet Office briefing | MOJ press release | Amnesty press release | INQUEST press release | Liberty press release | BBC report | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2) | Guardian report (3) | Telegraph report
Date: 2012-May
The Crime and Courts Bill was published. The Bill was designed to establish a National Crime Agency to take the lead on organized crime, enhance border security, and fight cyber crime. Television cameras would be allowed into courtrooms 'in limited circumstances': a separate paper set out the plans in more detail.
Source: Crime and Courts Bill [HL], Ministry of Justice, TSO | Proposals to Allow the Broadcasting, Filming, and Recording of Selected Court Proceedings, Ministry of Justice
Links: Bill | Hansard | MOJ press release (1) | MOJ press release (2) | Home Office press release | Paper
Date: 2012-May
A new book examined the constitutional principles underlying European Union criminal law.
Source: Ester Herlin-Karnell, The Constitutional Dimension of European Criminal Law, Hart Publishing
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-May
An audit report said that the Home Office had made good progress in improving its financial management since 2009. But the Department would need to achieve further savings of £1.1 billion a year by 2014-15 and one-third of this sum remained uncertain.
Source: Financial Management in the Home Office, HC 1832 (Session 2010-2012), National Audit Office, TSO
Links: Report | NAO press release | Guardian report | Telegraph report
Date: 2012-Apr
A new book examined the recent emergence of a 'right to security' in the criminal law. It set out from a detailed analysis of the law of the anti-social behaviour order and of the coalition government's proposed replacement for it. It showed that the liabilities contained in both sought to protect a 'freedom from fear', and that this 'right to security' explained many other recently enacted criminal offences. It identified the normative source of this right to security in the idea of 'vulnerable autonomy', and considered the influence of this idea on the policy of both the Labour (1997-2010) and coalition governments. It concluded that repressive criminal laws had arisen from a deficit of political authority rather than from excessive authoritarianism.
Source: Peter Ramsay, The Insecurity State: Vulnerable autonomy and the right to security in the criminal law, Oxford University Press
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Apr
A new book examined the implications of contemporary technology for the practice of criminal justice, and related them to key historical precedents in the way that technology had been interpreted and controlled. It outlined a new 'social' way of thinking about technology – in terms of its effects on people's bodies and what they could do, most obviously the ways in which social life and the ability to causally interact with the world was being 'extended' in various ways.
Source: Michael McGuire, Technology, Crime and Justice: The question concerning 'technomia', Routledge
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Mar
A report evaluated the criminal justice record of the coalition government following its formation in May 2010. It examined its overall promises and performance, focusing on the heralded 'rehabilitation revolution', marketization, and drug control.
Source: Arianna Silvestri (ed.), Critical Reflections: Social and Criminal Justice in the First Year of Coalition Government, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (King's College London)
Links: Report
Date: 2012-Mar
The Welsh Government began consultation on whether Wales should be a separate legal jurisdiction from England and the rest of the United Kingdom.
Source: A Separate Legal Jurisdiction for Wales, Welsh Government
Links: Consultation document | Welsh Government press release
Date: 2012-Mar
A report highlighted the United Kingdom's option under the Lisbon Treaty to use a 'block opt-out' to repatriate 130 European Union crime and policing laws that had been adopted before the Treaty came into force. If the UK did not opt out, it would have to accept the European Court of Justice's full powers of jurisdiction over these laws from December 2014.
Source: Stephen Booth, Christopher Howarth, and Vincenzo Scarpetta, An Unavoidable Choice: More or less EU control over UK policing and criminal law, Open Europe
Links: Report | Open Europe press release | Telegraph report
Date: 2012-Jan
A new book provided a critique of the moral basis for punishing criminal wrongdoers. It challenged the assumption that society was justified in punishing criminals on the grounds that they had committed a morally wrongful act.
Source: Hyman Gross, Crime and Punishment: A Concise Moral Critique, Oxford University Press
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Jan
A new textbook examined key debates in criminal justice studies.
Source: Tom Ellis and Stephen Savage (eds.), Debates in Criminal Justice: Key themes and issues, Routledge
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Jan