Proposed Changes to Police Pursuits

The Home Office are currently consulting on proposed changes to the law, guidance and training governing police pursuits.

Issues set out in this documentation for consultation and potential future action include:

• considering whether any legislative change should apply only to police pursuits or to police response driving as well
• whether to revise the various exemptions from certain areas of road traffic legislation to make them clearer and more consistent
• amending the definitions in the offences of careless and dangerous driving to take account of the training and experience of police drivers
• making clear that a suspect being pursued is responsible for their own decision to drive dangerously and that blame should not be attached to the pursuing police officer.

Source: Home Office

New Sentencing Guidelines on Public Order Offences

The Sentencing Council has published its proposed new guidelines covering public order offences.

The guidelines cover offences within the Public Order Act 1986:

• Riot
• Violent Disorder
• Affray
• Threatening or provocation of violence and the racially or religiously aggravated counterpart offences
• Disorderly behaviour with intent to cause harassment, alarm or distress and the racially or religiously aggravated counterpart offences.
• Disorderly behaviour causing or likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress and the racially or religiously aggravated counterpart offences
• Offences relating to stirring up racial or religious hatred and hatred based on sexual orientation.

The guidelines aim to set out a clear approach to sentencing that covers the main factors that should be taken into account is assessing the culpability of the offender and the harm the caused. They also take into account trends in criminality.

 

Source: Sentencing Council

New legislation for remote control parking

Following a government consultation which ended in December, new legislation has been made to amend The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) (Amendment) Regulations 2018. This instrument amends regulation 110 of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 by inserting an additional exemption to provide that a person is not in contravention of that regulation where the hand-held mobile telephone or the hand-held device is being used to perform a remote control parking manoeuvre.

This legislation comes into force on 11 June 2018.

In addition, the Highway Code rules will be changed so clarity is given on both the use of remote control parking, and driver assistance systems that can control aspects of driving such as changing lanes on the motorway.

The government’s response to the consultation on automated vehicles and driver assistance can be found here.

National Strategic Assessment of Serious and Organised Crime 2018

The NCA has published its annual National Strategic Assessment of Serious and Organised Crime for 2018.

The threats faced by the UK from SOC are grouped into three categories:

• Vulnerabilities – Child Sexual Exploitation & Abuse; Organised Immigration Crime; Modern Slavery & Human Trafficking
• Prosperity – Money Laundering; Fraud & Other Economic Crime; Bribery, International Corruption & Sanctions Evasion; Cyber Crime
• Commodities – illicit trading of firearms and guns.

These categories are cross-cut with the following threat enablers:

• Vulnerabilities at the UK Border
• Use of Technology (including the dark web) in SOC
• Prisons & Repeat Offenders
• Corruption within the UK

Some key points of the assessment are:

• At the end of 2017, 4,629 OCGs were mapped, and these OCGs can work together in criminal enterprises.
• The scale of MSHT is continually increasing on a gradual rate of growth. A higher proportion of potential victims are exploited prior to arrival into the UK.
• There appears to be a fluid illicit supply of firearms, as the majority of weapons discharged by criminals have not been previously used.
• The UK is considered a prime destination for corrupt foregin Politically Exposed Persons to launder the proceeds of corruption (particularly Russia, Nigeria and Pakistan).

Source: NCA

 

The Met launch multi-agency unit to tackle stalking

The Met have launched a specialist multi-agency unit in partnership with  Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust (BEH) and the Suzy Lamplugh Trust, to combat stalking in London. The unit brings together officers with nurses, a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a CPS lawyer, and a probation officer.

The unit is a two year pilot which aims to improve the responses to victims, the sharing of information between partners, and for the early intervention of offenders. The pilot will be assessed for a consideration for national roll-out.

Similar projects will also be launched in Hampshire and Cheshire.

Source

Government’s child mental health Green Paper “lacks ambition”

The Government’s strategy to child mental health, including the rollout of “Trailblazer” pilot projects, where mental health teams provide extra support alongside waiting time targets, has long timeframes which will leave many children without access.

The strategy’s schemes will only reach a fifth to a quarter of the country by 2022/23.

The Green Paper also suggests that schools and colleges should create their own ‘Designated Senior Lead for Mental Health’, however workforces in education are already stretched.

The Education and Health and Social Care Committees are concerned that the Green Paper did not mention exam stress, or the transferral to adult mental health care. The report comments that “a third of 18 year olds drop out of mental health support rather than transfer to adult services”.

Source: Joint committee report, Green Paper

Audit of the progress of the courts transformation show it is behind where expected

The National Audit Office has released a report on the HMCTS modernisation programmes. It has found that HMCTS has improved its approach, but there are still delays.

The portfolio of change programmes was introduced in 2016, to be embedded by March 2023. The first stage was completed in September 2017, with the estates reform performing better than expected, but there has been delays in the Common Platform.

The NAO recommends that HMCTS works with Ministry of Justice, HM Treasury and other organisations in the justice system to jointly anticipate and manage possible adverse consequences of the planned changes. HMCTS must also provide more detail on how the modernised services will work in practice, what has already happened and what else needs to be done. It should provide greater transparency of its objectives and progress and be clear how it is adapting plans in response to challenges. Being open in this way will help ensure taxpayers and stakeholders have a clearer picture of what is happening, and can hold HMCTS to account for its performance.

Source: NAO

Pilot projects for rough sleeper launched

The Housing Secretary has launched pilot projects for rough sleepers in Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region and the West Midlands Combined Authority. The projects will be based on Housing First, an internationally-proven approach, which in Europe is found to be 80% successful at ending homelessness – compared to just 40-60% using hostel-based accommodation.

This announcement builds on measures the government is bringing forward to halve rough sleeping by 2022 and end it altogether by 2027, including:

• a new Rough Sleeping Team made up of rough sleeping and homelessness experts with specialist knowledge across a wide-range of areas from housing, mental health and addiction
• a £30 million fund for 2018 to 2019 with further funding agreed for 2019 to 2020 targeted at local authorities with high numbers of people sleeping rough – these areas will be supported by the new Rough Sleeping Team to develop local interventions to reduce the numbers of those sleeping rough
• £100,000 funding to support frontline Rough Sleeping workers to make sure they have the right skills and knowledge to work with vulnerable rough sleepers

Source: gov.uk