In Focus

The Crime and Policing Bill 2025 creates a raft of new criminal offences from possession of blades, points, offensive blades weapons with intent, offences of child criminal exploitation, encouraging or assisting serious self -harm, concealing one’s...

Those with long memories will remember the two reports published under the tenure of Richard Thomas, the then Information Commissioner, "What price privacy?" in May 2006 and "What price privacy now?" in December 2006.  The...

In the not so distant past all advocacy in the Crown Court was effectively oral; witnesses were examined and cross-examined, documents were exhibited and speeches made.  There was no difference between how the prosecution and defence cases were...

It has been said that the peculiarities of the fitness to plead regime can cause practitioners to question their own sanity.  This article seeks to summarise the fundamentals. The Law – a good place to start The starting point is the Criminal...

This article is drafted on the day Susannah Hancock’s independent review into placements and care for girls in youth custody has been published. It highlights the complex mental and physical health issues these girls often face, with self-harm at a...

As part of the Inquiries and Inquests Practice Group Winter Series, Dermot Keating KC and Clementine Simon analyse the recent House of Lords report on Public Inquiries and question whether this will lead to any changes in 2025. The profile of public...

Despair: a word that suffers from its overuse, but which nails the mood of the criminal Bar and those who work in the Criminal Justice System (CJS). “CJS” itself has become a term rather akin to the historian’s definition of the Holy Roman...

Revamped for a new age? I. Background For decades the Official Secrets Act 1911 (“OSA”) and its subsequent iterations of 1920, 1923,1939 and 1989 have been the centrepiece of the UK’s legal apparatus for combatting the harmful activities...

Defendants and practitioners will be familiar with the substantial amount of time it now takes for complex cases to come to court and for subsequent confiscation proceedings to be finalised. Due to Covid-19 and the increasing backlog, there is now frequently...

As of 27 November 2024, Domestic Abuse Protection Orders (“DAPOs”) are being piloted in Greater Manchester, parts of South London (Croydon, Bromley, and Sutton) and the British Transport Police. What is a DAPO? A DAPO is a civil order...