The Justice Committee has published the Government response to
its report, Covid-19 and the Criminal Law, published nearly 12
months ago.
In the response, the Government accepted the recommendation that
the Ministry of Justice should be consulted by other departments
as a matter of course when considering new criminal offences or
penalties, or making amendments to existing one.
Ministers however rejected the Committee’s call for the UK Health
Security Agency to lead a review of the role of the criminal
justice system in enforcing Covid restrictions. They instead
argued that individual government departments are best placed to
“ensure that the right expertise in areas such as the criminal
law is fed into the policy process”.
The Committee’s recommendation that the Government move away from
an over-reliance on issuing fixed penalty notices (FPNs) were
also rejected, with the Government arguing that they provided an
effective way of encouraging safer behaviours without the need
for prosecutions.
The Committee has also published an updated Government response
to the Committee’s report on the future of legal aid. The Justice
Committee published its report on 27 July 2021. The Government’s
initial response was published on 16 November 2021. At that time,
the Criminal Legal Aid Independent Review and the Means Test
Review were both underway and had not yet been published.
Following the publication of both reviews, an updated Government
Response was received on 15 August 2022 and has been published
today.
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