A collection of news articles, reports, and publications available in the public domain, which are relevant to UK policing.
The outgoing head of the family courts in England and Wales has raised concerns about access to family courts and said help for litigants who had to represent themselves due to cuts to legal aid was “woefully inadequate”.
Sir James Munby also said that the present justice system does not serve people dependent on public transport.
With recent court closures, alternatives include judges travelling to litigant, mobile courts, or the use of Skype instead of appearing in person.
Source:Guardian
The Home Affairs committee have published a follow-up report on UK-EU security cooperation after Brexit, following developments in the negotiations as well as receiving oral evidence in July 2018 (see this previous blog post). The initial report from the inquiry was published on 21 March 2018, however the Government has yet to respond.
This follow-up report builds on previous recommendations, and are now:
Victoria Atkins, Minister for Crime, Safeguarding and Vulnerability emphasises the importance of a community approach to combating rising knife crime in an article in The Voice. Intervention and education focus on illustrating the harsh realities and consequences of carrying a knife as well as diverting people from a destructive path of violence and gangs. A multi-agency collaboration is vital to this strategy and includes schools, health, housing services, local community groups as well as the police.
The House of Lords committee on secondary legislation has revealed that children are being used in covert operations against terrorists, drug dealers and child exploitation, and approval from a parent or guardian is not required in the case of 16- to 18-year olds, nor does the authorisation process appear to involve other relevant agencies such as social workers, which raises safeguarding concerns. The authorisation period for using juvenile sources has been extended from one to four months under a new statutory instrument of the Investigatory Powers Act which came into force on 20 July.
The House of Lords have concerns over the new legislation with the risks to mental and physical welfare of the juvenile, and whether checks on these risks should be enhanced following the extension of the authorisation period. There is another concern that there is no consistent approach for how assessments of the risks to juveniles is to be carried out across different police forces.
This briefing draws on interviews with 40 anti-social behaviour (ASB) practitioners working in councils or the police to learn more about approaches to young adults with regards to ASB. It covers a wide range of issues from the recognition of young adults’ difficulties in accessing support services and resources as well as practitioners’ experiences of compliance, the interaction of substance addiction and mental health with compliance, and the impact of ASB powers in relation to long-term, sustained strategies to address social problems.
The report covers three of the six ASB powers in operation (dispersal powers, community protection notices and public spaces protection orders), which are mainly concerned with sanctioning behaviour in public places including street drinking, car racing and begging.
The report identifies several areas for future action including identifying how young adults themselves can best be involved in dialogue about nuisance behaviour, the need for a clearer structure for recognising age and maturity in planning and responding to ASB, that other agencies rather than the police should take the lead in some circumstances, and for the long and short-term consequences and effects of using ASB tools to be rigorously assessed and held to account in the future.
This report compliments an earlier one, ‘Antisocial behaviour powers and young adults’ which covers how dispersal powers, community protection notices and public space protection orders are being used to sanction young adults.
Source: crimeandjustice.org.uk
The Centre for Justice Innovation latest report, the changing use of pre-sentence reports, has found that cases with pre-sentence reports are more effective than alternative short-term custodial sentences or fines to reduce reoffending. Yet, their findings also show that between 2012-13 and 2016-17, the number of pre-sentence reports have decreased by 22% and oral pre-sentence reports have almost doubled within the past two years. Written reports have also fallen by a quarter, whilst standard delivery reports are also on the decline.
Although the centre notes that increasing the number of presentence reports will not necessarily result in the increase in community sentences, there is nevertheless an important relationship between the two factors to be explored further.
Source: Law Gazette
The ONS quarterly crime statistics show an 11% increase in overall crime, with a particular increase in knife crime, robbery, burglary and vehicle related crime.
Chief Constable Bill Skelly, the National Police Chief’s Council Lead for Crime Statistics has emphasised the use of early intervention strategies in order to respond to the increase in violent crime. Due to the complexity of this type of crime, intervention should focus on action from a range of partners including, government, education, health, social services, housing and victim services. Additionally, forces are also working closely with communities to prevent violence, targeting crime hotspots and utilising the powers of stop and search.
The report highlights the NCA’s success in fighting against serious and organised crime during 2017/18, including:
The Sentencing Council has published new definitive guidelines for intimidatory offences. These will be used in Courts from 1st October 2018.
The guidelines cover:
Source: The Sentencing Council
The private member bill proposed amendments to Section 8(4) of The Children’s Act 1989 to enable the courts to make interim care orders under the Act in child cases related to FGM, in addition to Female Genital Mutilation Protection Orders (FGMPO). The order would allow local authorities to have shared responsibility for children at risk until a final hearing.
The Lords described the Acts current omission as an “oversight” as interim care orders can only be made in certain ‘family proceedings’, which do not include those under the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003. The amendment would therefore allow the courts to make interim care orders as well as an FGMPO in cases relating to FGM.
Second Reading in the House of Lords was passed on 20 July 2018, and will now pass to the Committee stage.
Police Horizon Scanning 