Download or read book House of Commons Justice Committee Appointment of HM Chief Inspector of Probation HC 640 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Justice Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Justice Committee held a pre-appoointment hearing with the preferred candidate, Mr Paul McDowell. This report contains the oral evidence from that meeting and the Committee approves his appointment. The report also contains correspondence between the Chair of the Committee and the Secretary of State, the job advertisement, the person specification used in the recruitment process, and Mr McDowell's curriculum vitae.
Download or read book House of Commons Justice Committee Appointment of the Chair of the Office for Legal Complaints HC 916 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Justice Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-12-13 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The chairmanship of the Office for Legal Complaints is one of the posts which are subject to (non-binding) pre-appointment scrutiny by select committees. Elizabeth France was recruited to the position on 10 October 2008, and the Justice Committee took oral evidence from her on 21 October.
Download or read book HC 624 Appointment of HM Chief Inspector of Prisons and HM Chief Inspector of Probation written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Justice Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2015 with total page 45 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Report follows a pre-appointment scrutiny hearing which the Committee held on Tuesday 24 November with Mr Peter Clarke, the Secretary of State's preferred candidate for HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, and Glenys Stacey, the preferred candidate for HM Chief Inspector of Probation.
Download or read book House of Commons Justice Committee Ministry of Justice Measures in the JHA Block Opt Out HC 605 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Justice Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-10-31 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Government has struck a reasonable balance in the way it is planning to exercise its right to opt-out of pre-Lisbon Treaty EU policing and criminal justice measures, but the way it has engaged Parliament in the decision-making process has been badly handled and 'cavalier'. The Government left the Commons select committees far too little time to assess the reasons for their decisions on EU justice opt-ins, and did not provide the full impact assessment which was needed. The Committee agrees with the Government's plans to seek to opt back into seven of the sixteen measures, and not to opt into a number of others. The Committee also raises questions about the Government's intention not to opt back into two specific instruments, the Probation Measures Framework Decision and the Framework Decision on the settlement of conflicts of jurisdiction. The Committee also calls on the Government to provide an assessment of the effect of the extension of the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice of the European Union over the measures covered by the opt-out. The Committee also agrees with the Government's proposal to seek to rejoin decisions on data protection in policing and criminal justice, and on a data protection secretariat, but says that the arguments are more finely balanced in relation to the Framework Decision on settlement of conflicts of jurisdiction
Download or read book House of Commons Justice Committee Fraud Bribery and Money Laundering Offences Guideline Consultation HC 804 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Justice Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-11-08 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In line with the Council's overarching approach to sentencing, the draft Guideline puts greater emphasis on the impact the crime has had on the victim than previous guidelines issued by its predecessor body and on culpability, rather than focusing more exclusively on financial loss. We welcome this approach in relation to the six individual guidelines, as we are conscious that victims, particularly vulnerable individuals, may suffer significant financial and psychological harm over the loss of relatively small sums. This report discusses concerns with the new guidelines and makes recommendations for changes to the proposals
Download or read book HC 1117 Appointment of HM Chief Inspector of the Crown Prosecution Service written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Justice Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2015 with total page 29 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Justice Committee held a pre-appoointment hearing with the preferred candidate, Mr Paul McDowell. This report contains the oral evidence from that meeting and the Committee approves his appointment. The report also contains correspondence between the Chair of the Committee and the Secretary of State, the job advertisement, the person specification used in the recruitment process, and Mr McDowell's curriculum vitae.
Download or read book HC 310 Joint Enterprise Follow Up written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Justice Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this Report the Committee returns to follow up the Report which was published in January 2012 (ISBN 9780215040589) on the operation of the common-law doctrine of joint enterprise, which forms part of the criminal law relating to secondary liability. The types of cases considered are those in which P and D participate together in one crime and in the course of it P commits a second crime which D had foreseen he might commit: in such cases, under joint enterprise, D may also be charged and convicted of the second offence. The Committee considers in this report the impact of the guidance for prosecutors in joint enterprise cases which the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) produced in response to one of the 2012 recommendations, taking into account statistics on murder and manslaughter cases with two or more defendants in 2012 and 2013 which the CPS also produced. The Committee concludes that the level of concern about the operation of joint enterprise, especially in murder cases, is such that it is no longer acceptable for the main authorities in the criminal justice system to give such limited attention and priority to the recording and collation of information and reommends that the Ministry of Justice establish a system to enable production of regular statistics on joint enterprise prosecutions, convictions and appeals. This report sets out a range of other concerns and questions which continue to be raised about the application of the doctrine, including the scale of use of joint enterprise, the question as to whether joint enterprise is being used as a social policy tool, the high number of Black and mixed race young men who have been convicted of joint enterprise offences. The evidence heard in this second inquiry into the subject has increased disquiet at the functioning of the law on joint enterprise and the Committee is no longer of the view that it is satisfactory for a consultation to be held on the Law Commission's previous proposals on joint enterprise.
Download or read book HC 657 Manorial Rights written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Justice Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2015 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Manorial rights are certain rights which were retained by lords of the manor in England and Wales when land became freehold in the early 20th century, and can include rights to mines and some minerals, sporting rights such as hunting, shooting and fishing, and rights to hold fairs and markets. In the past such rights were not required to be detailed on theregister of title, but they remained overriding - that is they bound the owner of the affected and even though they may not have known about the rights. Changes made through the Land Registration Act 2002 sought to increase the transparency and knowledge of such rights by requiring that they be registered and removing their overriding status. This Act specified a deadline - October 2013 - by which such rights should be registered to ensure they could not be lost.
Download or read book HC 309 Prisons Planning and Policies written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Justice Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2015 with total page 85 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the Committee's first major inquiry on prisons planning and policies in this Parliament, and it has provided an opportunity to consider the impact of the Government's programme of reforms and efficiency savings across the prison estate. These policies have been implemented alongside the creation of working prisons and resettlement prisons, designed to improve the effectiveness of the prison estate in increasing employability and reducing re-offending, as well as the tightening of operational policies on earned privileges and temporary release in order to improve their public credibility. They have also come at a time when the total prison population has returned to very high levels. The Committee expresses concern that despite the Government's efforts to supply sufficient prison places to meet demand, the proportion of prisons that are overcrowded is growing, and the proportion of prisoners held in crowded conditions remains at almost a quarter, with consequent effects on the ability to maintain constructive regimes. The Committee welcomes the reduction which has taken place in the cost of a prison place, although the Committee notes that it remains high, and is unlikely to fall significantly while the pressures on estate capacity remain at current levels
Download or read book HC 308 Mesothelioma Claims written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Justice Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014-08 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report assesses the decision to apply sections 44 and 46 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) to mesothelioma compensation claims. These sections prevent winning claimants recovering from defendants success fees charged by their lawyers or premiums for insurance against having to meet defendants' costs (after the event, or ATE, insurance). They applied to all other personal injury claims since April 2013, but section 48 of LASPO required Ministers to undertake a review before they could be brought into effect for claims relating to mesothelioma. The section 48 review was not prepared in a thorough and even-handed manner and a fresh consultation should be undertaken. The Government was not reconciled to the concession it was forced to make to exempt mesothelioma cases from its provisions, and determined to review the exemption as soon as it could. In its haste the Government failed to ensure that relevant information, such as a cost-benefit analysis of the changes, was available to interested parties. It also shoehorned part of its section 48 review into a wider consultation on changes to the mesothelioma claims process. The Committee also urges expedition of the primary legislation needed to bring into effect the Third Party (Rights Against Insurers) Act 2010, which will enable a claim to be issued against an insurer without a judgment first having had to be obtained against an insolvent insured party. The Ministry of Justice should also work in tandem with the Department of Health to reduce delays in the production of medical records of mesothelioma victims.
Download or read book HC 850 Criminal Cases Review Commission written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Justice Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2015 with total page 41 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) was set up in 1997, by the Criminal Appeal Act 1995, on the recommendation of the Royal Commission on Criminal Justice. The CCRC investigates alleged miscarriages of justice, post-conviction and post-appeal, and has the power to refer cases back to the Court of Appeal for reconsideration. The Committee held a one-off evidence session on the work of the CCRC in January 2014, and then sought some views on the issues raised. The Committee subsequently decided to hold an inquiry on the CCRC, and launched it with a general call for evidence. The "real possibility" test, which requires that for a referral to be made there must be a real possibility that the conviction or sentence would not be upheld on appeal, was one of the most controversial aspects of the CCRC. The Committee found that criticisms broadly fell into one of three areas: that the test itself is wrong; that the test is being applied incorrectly by the CCRC; or that the Court of Appeal's approach to criminal appeals is overly restrictive. The Committee's considers each of these areas in turn. Critics of the test felt that it inherently prevents the CCRC from being truly independent of the Court of Appeal. The Committee concludes that any change would have to be in light of a change to the Court of Appeal's grounds for allowing appeals.
Download or read book HC 311 Impact of Changes to Civil Legal Aid Under Part 1 of the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Acvt 2012 written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Justice Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2015 with total page 87 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the reforms came into effect, there has been a significant underspend in the civil legal aid budget because the MoJ failed to ensure that those who are eligible for legal aid are able to access it. This has been partly been due to a lack of public information, including information about the Civil Legal Advice telephone gateway for debt advice, and the Committee recommends that the MoJ take prompt steps to redress this. The Committee also concludes that the exceptional cases funding scheme has not worked as Parliament intended. It was supposed to act as a safety net, protecting access to justice for the most vulnerable. The Committee expects the MoJ to react rapidly to ensure that the scheme fulfils Parliament's intention that the most vulnerable people are able to access legal assistance. The Government's reforms have led to an increase in the number and a change in the profile of litigants in person: increasingly these are people who have no choice but to represent themselves, and who may thus have difficulty in doing so effectively: although many tribunals are accustomed to dealing with unrepresented litigants the courts have to expend more resources in order to assist them. The MoJ has not been able to demonstrate that it has achieved value for money for the taxpayer. Although significant savings have been achieved, efforts to target legal aid at those who most need it have focused on intervention aimed at the point after a crisis has already developed, rather than on prevention.
Download or read book HC 307 Crime Reduction Policies A Co Ordinated Approach written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Justice Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Justice Committee believes The Treasury should seriously question whether taxpayers' money is used in ways most likely to reduce future crime and victimisation and must develop a longer term strategy for the use of resources tied up currently in the criminal justice system. All parts of the criminal justice system have had to cope with significant spending cuts, yet it appears that the Government has shied away from using the need to make those cuts to re-evaluate how and where money is spent. The Committee welcomes the development of various cross-Government initiatives to deal with the sources of crime, such as the Troubled Families Programme. But resources committed are tiny compared to the costs of crime to society. Each year: violent crime, 44% of which is alcohol related, costs almost £30 billion; crime perpetrated by people who had conduct problems in childhood costs around £60 billion; drug related crime costs £13.3 billion; anti-social behaviour related to alcohol abuse costs £11 billion. The costs of preventative investment further upstream are often relatively small yet the Committee's evidence highlights the clear benefits of collective ownership, pooled funding and joint priorities that have been facilitated by the shift of power in this field from Whitehall to local communities. The greatest problem identified by the Committee is the lack of rigorous assessment of where taxpayers' money can be most effectively spent in cutting crime. A more evidence-based approach is needed.
Download or read book Crime Reduction Policies written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Justice Committee and published by . This book was released on 2014-01-22 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report spells out concerns raised about gaps in information and in implementation plans for the Government's proposed reform of probation services. The Transforming Rehabilitation proposals, which would see probation services opened up to private and third sector providers and the introduction of payment incentives for reducing re-offending, will radically change the probation system. The programme's aim to use expected savings from the delivery of existing probation services to provide post-release supervision to short-sentenced prisoners was generally welcomed. Up until now the most prolific offenders - who receive repeated, short sentences - have received no statutory support. Nevertheless, any gains made in reducing reoffending must not come at the expense of the supervision of offenders on other sentences, and must not diminish the value of community sentences. Witnesses to the inquiry had major concerns about the scale, architecture, detail and consequences of the reforms- much of which has not been tested-and the pace at which the Government is seeking to implement them. They identified a particular risk in the Government's decision to split the delivery of probation services between a public National Probation Service dealing with the highest-risk offenders and the new providers who will be dealing with low and medium risk offenders. At this stage, with the plans already beginning to come into effect, it is for the Government to look carefully at the areas where either risk or a need for clarification has been identified
Download or read book The Stationery Office Annual Catalogue written by Stationery Office (Great Britain) and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 574 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Punishment and reform written by Great Britain: Ministry of Justice and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-03-27 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This consultation paper sets out the conclusions of an internal review by the Secretary of State of how probation services in England and Wales can be improved. The intention is to ensure probation services are better able to achieve the outcomes in justice that matter to victims and communities: protecting the public, reducing reoffending and ensuring that offenders are properly punished. The consultation paper sets out clear proposals to meet these aims. It is intended to take forward the vision set out by the Government in the green paper, 'Breaking the cycle: effective punishment, rehabilitation and sentencing of offenders' (Cm. 7972, ISBN 9780101797221) and is publishing simultaneously with the Consultation on effective community sentences (Cm. 8334, ISBN 9780101833424).
Download or read book National Audit Office Ministry of Justice and National Offender Management Service HC 735 written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-12-12 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The current strategy for the prison estate in England and Wales has provided good quality accommodation, suitable for decades to come for prisoners with a wide range of security categorizations. The strategy is also a significant improvement in value for money over the short-term and reactive approaches of the early and middle 2000s. However, the strategy has resulted in the closure of several prisons that were performing well, and their performance has not yet been matched by new establishments. Some prisoners still routinely share cells, some of them in overcrowded conditions. The strategy understandably focuses on cost reduction and, by 2015-16, it will have resulted in total savings of £211 million, with further savings accruing at a rate of £70 million a year thereafter. However, decision-making has sometimes traded good quality and performance for greater savings. The Ministry of Justice and NOMS use good forecasts of prisoner numbers and have good contingency plans to help them implement changes to the estate, for example responding effectively to an unexpected spike in prisoner numbers after the riots in 2011. NOMS could free up more spare capacity if prisoners serving indeterminate sentences had more access to accredited courses the completion of which might reduce their risk of causing harm sufficiently to allow the Parole Board to release them. The report also points out that the Home Office removes over 1,000 foreign national offenders from the UK every quarter but, for a number of reasons, is currently removing fewer than in 2009
