Mother Against Murder and Aggression

DELIVERING JUSTICE FOR ALL - CRIMINAL JUSTICE BILL RECEIVES ROYAL ASSENT

Reference: CJS 010/2003 - Date: 21 Nov 2003 13:09

The Criminal Justice Bill, which represents the most significant overhaul of the criminal justice system in a generation, received Royal Assent last night.

The Criminal Justice Act will deliver end-to-end reforms to modernise and rebalance the system in favour of victims, witnesses and communities. It will help tackle and reduce crime - from detection to the rehabilitation of offenders - by bringing more offenders to justice, making trials a search for the truth, and making punishments work more effectively.

The Act responds to widespread calls for reform to update the criminal justice system and restore public confidence. It brings forward a coherent, imaginative and balanced package of provisions based on detailed recommendations in reports from the Law Commission, Sir Robin Auld and John Halliday and is the result of widespread public consultation.

The Act will introduce:

measures to strengthen the police in their fight against crime and terrorism, and crackdown on defendants who reoffend on bail or fail to turn up at court;

measures to improve joined up working, result in better prepared cases, more efficient trials, utilise modern technology to help victims and witnesses give evidence through live links and ensure juries better reflect all sections of society;

measures to tackle jury nobbling to ensure that dangerous, organised criminals are brought to justice;

an inclusionary approach to evidence to help make trials a search for the truth, trusting juries and Magistrates to make a decision based on as wide a range of evidence as possible, while protecting the rights of defendants;

clarity and consistency in sentencing, setting out the purposes and principles of sentencing in statute for the first time;

tougher sentences for murder, sexual and violent offences, persistent offenders, firearms offences and dangerous drivers who kill; and

imaginative and robust alternatives to custody that can be tailored to individual offenders and based on what is most effective in reducing reoffending.

Home Secretary David Blunkett said:

"The Criminal Justice Act is about protecting the public and protecting the standing and credibility of our justice system. That has been our priority as we have fought against those intent on protecting vested interests or the status quo for its own sake.

"The need for reform is overwhelming, urgent and widely recognised.

When the system works badly it is our poorest communities, which suffer the most from crime, that pay the highest price. Reform is therefore a matter of social justice.

"In introducing the most significant piece of criminal justice legislation in a generation, we aim to turn the criminal justice system into a criminal justice service, a service that is seen by the public as on their side, and effective at delivering justice and fairness for all.

"The Act will give the police additional tools in the fight against crime,

will put the search for the truth at the heart of ensuring justice is done, protect communities from dangerous offenders and organised crime and ensure the needs of victims and witnesses are considered at every stage of the process.

"The Criminal Justice Act is part of wider changes we are delivering including reforming the police while providing record numbers of officers, the Courts Act, Anti-Social Behaviour Act, Sexual Offences Act and future legislation on victims. Together our reforms will ensure our police, system of justice and laws are effective and focused on reducing crime and are relevant and responsive to the people and communities they serve."

Welcoming Royal Assent, the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs,

Lord Falconer, said:

"This pioneering piece of legislation fulfils a pledge to make the court

system more customer focussed. It's in step with community demands and expectations and will be a watershed in improving public confidence in the criminal justice system.

"The system won't work unless the community is behind it. There are many individuals and groups who come into daily contact with the

courts and meeting all their needs requires a difficult balancing act."

The Attorney General Lord Goldsmith said:

"This Act is good news for victims, witnesses and the public. Particularly important for narrowing the justice gap and improving public confidence is the scheme for the prosecution, rather than the police, to have responsibility for charging suspects. In pilots, conviction rates increased by 15% and ineffective trials were reduced by 59%. And a new prosecution right of appeal against both terminating and non-terminating rulings will introduce for the prosecution a right that has always been available to the defence, helping to rebalance the system and ensuring that the guilty are not acquitted on the basis of an erroneous judicial ruling."

The Act's key provisions will:

Strengthen the police in their fight against crime, terrorism and organised crime:

PACE: Changes to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act including:

extending stop and search powers to include items intended to cause criminal - damage;
enable immediate bail from the scene of arrest ('street bail');
extend the time for which someone may be detained from 24 to 36 hours for any arrestable offence;
enable continued detention to be authorised by telephone;
extend the powers of the police to take and retain fingerprints and DNA samples from those in police detention having been arrested for a recordable offence; and
make possession of Cannabis an arrestable offence.

BAIL: Introducing a presumption against bail for defendants charged with an imprisonable offence who are brought back to court having failed to appear or commit an offence while out on bail; restrictions on bail for those who test positive for a specified Class A drug and refuse to undetake assessment and relevant follow-up treatment; extending prosecution right of appeal against bail.
DRUG TESTING: Extend drug testing and treatment provision so that even more offenders can tackle their addiction and cut drug related crime.
TERRORISM: Extending the maximum possible period of detention without charge under the Terrorism Act from seven to 14 days, when agreed by a court.
ID FRAUD: Making passport and driving licence fraud arrestable offences; and increasing to two years the maximum penalty for making a fraudulent application for a driving licence.

Make system more efficient, modern and joined up:

CONDITIONAL CAUTIONS: Allowing for cautions to be administered by the police subject to conditions aimed at rehabilitation and reparation. Offenders who fail to comply with the conditions would be liable to be prosecuted for the original offence.
CHARGING: CPS to determine charging in all but the most minor cases resulting in more accurate charging, better prepared cases and earlier guilty pleas.
ALLOCATION: Enabling cases to be dealt with quickly and at the level of court most appropriate to their seriousness.
LIVE LINKS: Will enable any witness to give evidence using live links in the interests of efficient or effective administration of justice. This is part of a wider programme to help witnesses to give their evidence in criminal proceedings.
JURY SERVICE: Anyone summoned to do jury service will be required to do it unless they can show "good reason" to have their summons deferred or excused. This will enhance jury trial by ensuring juries better reflect all sections of society.

Make trials a search for the truth:

DISCLOSURE: Improve defence and prosecution disclosure with increased incentives and sanctions to ensure compliance.
PROSECUTION APPEALS: Gives the prosecution the right of appeal against judicial rulings which effectively terminate the prosecution before the jury decides.
DOUBLE JEOPARDY: Allow for retrial following an acquittal in serious cases where new and compelling evidence comes to light.
BAD CHARACTER and HEARSAY: An inclusionary approach to evidence, removing artificial barriers to the truth by trusting juries with the widest range of evidence possible to enable them to reach a just verdict.

Protect communities:

JUDGE ALONE TRIAL: Allow for judge alone trial in a limited number of cases involving threats and intimidation of juries to ensure no-one is above the law and can evade justice.
Paved the way for judge-alone trial in a small number of exceptionally long, complex serious fraud cases.
MURDER - Giving Parliament a role in setting the framework for sentences for murder, providing clarity to the public and offenders and ensuring life means life for the most heinous crimes
DANGEROUS OFFENDERS: A new scheme for the sentencing of dangerous offenders, those who continue to pose a risk to the public may be kept in prison for an indeterminate period.
GUN CRIME: New five year mandatory minimum custodial sentence for unauthorised possession of a prohibited firearm to help tackle gun crime.
DANGEROUS DRIVERS: Increase the maximum penalty for causing death by dangerous driving from 10 to 14 years; causing death by careless driving whilst under the influence of drink or drugs from 10 to 14 years and aggravated vehicle taking resulting in death from five to14 years.
PERSISTENT OFFENDERS: Ensure persistent offenders receive progressively more severe sentences.
HATE CRIME: extend the current statutory duty on sentencers to increase sentences for offences aggravated by the victim's race and religion, so that it also includes offences aggravated by hostility towards the victim because of their sexual orientation or disability.

Put the sense back into sentencing and rehabilitate offenders:

PURPOSES OF SENTENCING: For the first time enshrine the purposes and principles of sentencing into statute: to protect the public, punish the offender, reduce and deter crime and reform and rehabilitate the offender.
SENTENCING GUIDELINES COUNCIL: Establish a new Sentencing Guidelines Council which will set out comprehensive guidelines for the full range of criminal offences to help remove uncertainty and disparity in sentencing and give representatives of the police, prisons, probation and victims a voice in sentencing for the first time.
MAGISTRATES' SENTENCING POWERS: Extend Magistrates' sentencing power from six to12 months. This will allow magistrates to make full use of the new sentence of custody plus, as well as being able to pass a sentence of 12 months imprisonment for one offence.
GENERIC COMMUNITY SENTENCES: Create a single community sentence under which the different community orders would be available. The generic community sentence will allow sentencers a greater degree of flexibility in putting together tough community sentences that will be tailored to the needs of offenders.
CUSTODY PLUS: The Act transforms the structure of short prison sentences so that they will be more effective at addressing the needs of offenders. The new custodial sentences of less than 12 months will consist of a short 'custodial period' of between two weeks and three months followed by a 'licence period' of at least 6 months.
INTERMITTENT CUSTODY: A new sentence should reduce re-offending by enabling offenders to serve their custodial period in blocks of a few days at a time, thus allowing them to maintain ties with the community such as work, education or childcare whilst serving a custodial sentence.
CUSTODY MINUS: A new suspended sentence that will be much more demanding than the existing suspended sentences and more widely available. An offender will have requirements to fulfil in the community, just like in a community sentence. If an offender breaches the requirements the presumption will be that the suspended prison sentence is activated.
SENTENCES OVER 12 MONTHS: For those serving sentences over 12 months (apart from dangerous offenders) release to be automatic at the half-way point but offenders would remain on licence until the end of their sentence, thus serving it in full.

Miscellaneous provisions:

PARENTING ORDERS: Extending the use of Parenting Orders to allow a parenting order to be made with a referral order, enabling courts to involve parents more with young offenders at an earlier stage in their offending behaviour.
INDIVIDUAL SUPPORT ORDERS: The Individual Support Order will provide support for juveniles with Anti Social Behaviour Orders to tackle their anti-social behaviour. It will be a civil order, which provides assistance for the young person concerned to address the underlying causes of their anti-social behaviour.
OUTRAGING PUBLIC DECENCY: Amends the Magistrates' Court Act 1980 to add the offence at common law of outraging public decency to the list, in Schedule 1, of offences triable either way.
MAPPA: Extend and strengthen the existing duty placed on responsible authorities (Local Probation Board and Chief Officer of Police for each area and the Prison Service) to establish and keep under review arrangements for assessing and managing the risks posed by sexual and violent offenders in the community.
FOREIGN NATIONAL PRISONERS: Early removal scheme for this group of prisoners. Eligible prisoners will be deported up to a maximum of 135 days early depending on sentence length.
TRAFFICKING ENDANGERED SPECIES: Provide for the maximum penalty for certain wildlife trade offences to be increased from two to five years imprisonment, throughout the UK. This will send a clear message to those people who cynically exploit the world's endangered species, that their activities will not be tolerated.

Notes to Editors:

The Criminal Justice Act and Explanatory Notes will be published shortly on The Stationary Office website www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk
Further information on the provisions in the Act can be found at www.cjsonline.gov.uk
The White Paper 'Justice for All' was published on 17 July 2002 and can be found on the Home Office website www.homeoffice.gov.uk (see CJS Press Notice 201/2002)
The Criminal Justice Bill was published on 21 November 2002 (see CJS Press Notice 317/2002).
Subsequent Home Office announcements on the Bill include:

091/2003 'Extending the use of fingerprints and DNA samples to combat crime'

126/2003 'Home Secretary announces tougher sentences for murderers'

129/2003 ' Abuse bail - go to jail'

130/2003 'New sentencing body to guarantee sentencing reform'

132/2003 'Supporting police in fight against international terrorism and organised crime'

141/2003 'Stronger penalties for dangerous drivers'

The 'Review of the Criminal Courts of England and Wales' by the Right Honourable Lord Justice Robin Auld was published in October 2001 and can be found on the Criminal Courts Review website: www.criminal-courts-review.org.uk

7. 'Making Punishments Work: The Report of the Sentencing Framework Review' led by John Halliday was published in July 2001 and can be found on the Home Office website at

www.homeoffice.gov.uk/docs/halliday

For further information please contact:

020 7273 3782 OR 4513

Published: 21 Nov 2003