King's Speech 2023 - Criminal Justice Bill

Criminal Justice Bill

“My Ministers will introduce legislation to empower police forces and the criminal justice system to prevent new or complex crimes, such as digital-enabled crime and child sexual abuse, including grooming.”

• It is a priority for the Government to keep the public safe - and that means less crime. Since 2010, overall crime (excluding fraud and computer misuse) is down by 56 per cent, violent crime is down by 52 per cent, domestic burglary is down by 57 per cent, and vehicle related theft is down by 39 per cent. We have recruited 20,000 new police officers; we are building over 20,000 more prison places; and we are ensuring that dangerous offenders face the toughest possible punishment for their crimes.

• However we must go further. That is why we are legislating in the Criminal Justice Bill to reform the criminal justice system and give the police the powers necessary to keep people safe. The Government is taking the right long-term decisions for the country, to reduce crime, deliver fewer victims and increase punishment for the most dangerous offenders.

What does the Bill do?

The Criminal Justice Bill will:

• ensure criminals face the consequences of their actions and spend longer behind bars by:
• • compelling defendants to attend their sentencing hearing;
  • introducing a statutory aggravating factor at sentencing for those involved in grooming gangs.

• protect the most vulnerable by:
• • (subject to consultation), introducing a mandatory duty on those who work with children to report concerns relating to Child Sexual Abuse, doing more to expose this hidden crime.

• give probation officers more powers to:
• • use polygraph tests on serious terrorist or sexual offenders to better manage their risk;
  • increase the multi-agency management requirements on offenders convicted of coercive or controlling behaviour.
  • • tackle violence against women and girls by:
    • • introducing a statutory aggravating factor at sentencing for offenders who murder their partner at the end of their relationship;
      • criminalising the sharing of intimate images;
      • expanding the offence of encouraging or assisting serious self-harm.
    • crack down on the crimes and anti-social behaviour that blight communities

    by:

    • taking tougher action on drugs through an expansion of drug testing on arrest;
    • increasing the maximum penalty for sale of dangerous weapons to under 18s;
    • creating a criminal offence of possession of a bladed article with the intent to cause harm;
    • tackling persistent, nuisance, and organised begging.
    • counter evolving threats and sophisticated technologies by:
    • • giving the police the powers they need to dismantle organised crime groups operating under the radar by creating a new power to enter a premises without a warrant to seize stolen goods, such as phones, based off GPS location tracking technology;
      • giving the police greater access to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency database to identify criminals.
      • banning articles that are used to commit serious and organised crime like templates for 3D printed firearm components, SIM farms, pill presses, and signal jammers used in vehicle theft.
    • build a better justice system by:
    • • establishing powers to transfer prisoners in and out of England and Wales to serve their sentence abroad;
      • giving chief officers of police forces the right to appeal the result of misconduct boards to the Police Appeals Tribunal.

    Territorial extent and application

    • The Bill will extend and apply to England and Wales. Certain provisions will also apply to Scotland and Northern Ireland.

    Key facts

    • 147,430 full-time equivalent police officers were in post as at 31 March 2023 in the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales, an increase of 5.1 per cent on March 2022. This is the highest number of police officers since comparable records began.

    Community Orders and Suspended Sentence Orders make up 17 percent of the overall electronic monitoring caseload.

    • Domestic abuse affects 2.4 million adults every year. One in five cases of murder and manslaughter is domestic abuse-relate.
    • £339.1 million of assets were recovered from Confiscation, Forfeiture, and Civil Recovery Orders in the financial year 2022 to 2023. Receipts have risen by 75 per cent compared to £193.8 million in 2017 to 2018 and are 49 per cent higher than the six-year median of £227.8 million.
    • In the last decade the average custodial sentence length has increased by almost 50 per cent, and this Government has ended automatic halfway release so that serious sexual and violent offenders will serve two-thirds of their sentence behind bars.
    • Since 2019 the police have removed over 100,000 dangerous weapons from the streets, closed over 4,700 county lines.
    • The Crime Survey for England and Wales shows that between the year ending March 2010 and the year ending June 2023:
    • overall crime excluding fraud and computer misuse, measured on a like for like basis, has decreased by 56 per cent;
    • neighbourhood crime - including thefts from the person, personal robberies, and domestic burglaries and vehicle crime - is down 50 per cent;
    • violent crime has fallen by 52 per cent.