SUMMARISE TWO BILLS CURRENTLY GOING THROUGH PARLIAMENT.
- Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill 2010- 11.
It includes four parts and 16 schedules. Part 1 makes provisions on legal aid, Part 2 deals with litigation funding and costs, and Part 3 covers sentencing and the punishment of offenders.
Summary
- reverses the position under the Access to Justice Act 1999, whereby civil legal aid is available for any matter not specifically excluded. The Bill takes some types of case out of scope for legal aid funding and provides that cases would not be eligible for funding unless of a type specified in the Bill
- abolishes the Legal Services Commission
- makes various provisions in respect of civil litigation funding and costs, taking forward the recommendations of the Jackson Review and the Government’s response to that review
- makes changes to sentencing provisions, including giving courts an express duty (rather than the current power) to consider making compensation orders where victims have suffered harm or loss; reducing the detailed requirements on courts when they give reasons for a sentence; allowing courts to suspend sentences of up to two years rather than 12 months; and amending the court’s power to suspend a prison sentence
- introduce new powers to allow curfews to be imposed for up to 12 months rather than the current six
- repeals provisions in the Criminal Justice Act 2003 which would have increased the maximum sentence a magistrate’s court could impose from six to 12 months
- make changes to the law on bail and remand, aimed at reducing the number of those who are unnecessarily sent into custody. Under the new “no real prospect” test, people will be released on bail if they are unlikely to receive a sentence
- Making provisions ensuring persons under 18 that have been sent into custody, to be sent into local authority accommodation.
- provisions relating to the release and recall of prisoners.
- gives the Secretary of State new powers to make rules about prisoners’ employment, pay and deductions. The intention of these provisions is that prisoners should make payments which support the victims of crime.
- introduces a penalty notice with an education option and provision for conditional cautions to be given without the need to refer the case to the relevant prosecutor.
- creates a new offence of threatening with an offensive weapon or object with a blade or point creating an immediate risk of serious physical harm. A minimum sentence of 6 months’ imprisonment to be given to persons over 18 guilty of this offence.
