Law Weblog

Prison works – Civitas

Tuesday 31 August 2010 at 6:00 am | In News | Post Comment Ex-Home Office criminologist Professor Ken Pease has contributed to the ‘prison works’ debate. On the one hand Michael Howard says ‘prison works’ but on the other hand the current Lord Chancellor, Ken Clarke says fewer criminals should be locked up.  Professor Pease’s report, Prison, Community Sentencing and Crime, has been released by the think-tank Civitas.

Professor Pease said community sentences have no evident effect on reconviction rates in their current form.
Using community sentences to replace short prison sentences simply “freed the group most likely to reoffend to do so sooner, with no evidence of a current treatment benefit from community sanctions to offset that.”

Pease said arguments for fewer short sentences failed to take into account that jailing persistent offenders gave the public a respite from crime.

Whether prison helps cut crime has been distorted by “convenient fictions” that it is expensive and less effective than community sentences.
Far from paying a higher price for custody, a greater price is paid for the failure of community sentences to reduce criminality.

And once a prison sentence has been served the deterrent effect has gone.

The report goes on to say that well-resourced and well delivered community sentences can work whereas some people in prison find it much easier than on a community sentence where they have to get up in the morning and do something useful.

Investigatory Powers Tribunal hears its first case (after 10 years)

Tuesday 10 August 2010 at 10:13 am | In News | Post Comment On 30 July 2010, for the first time in its 10 year history the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) heard a challenge at an open hearing.

It ruled that it was not a proper purpose and not necessary to use surveillance powers to spy on a Dorset couple who were thought to be living outside the catchment area for the over-subscribed Lilliput First School, which they wanted their child to attend.

The IPT further found that the surveillance breached the family’s right to privacy under Article 8 of the Human Rights Act.

Section 65 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 set up the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, which exists to investigate complaints about conduct by various public bodies.

Jenny Paton and partner Tim Joyce took Poole Borough Council (PBC) to the tribunal because the council had used the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) to spy on her family 21 times.

Almost 800 public bodies – including 474 local councils – under RIPA assumed powers to snoop through covert surveillance, phone records and private correspondence. It is argued that councils need the powers to target “serious criminals such as fly tippers, rogue traders and benefit fraudsters”.

Some on-the-spot fines to end

Tuesday 10 August 2010 at 9:34 am | In News | Post Comment On-the-spot fines for being drunk and disorderly, shoplifting, disorder and threatening and abusive behaviour are to be discontinued because they are not working.

In a pilot scheme in parts of London police officers will use court action or “words of advice” instead of fines.

Some 45,616 fixed penalty notices were issued in England and Wales but 24,713 were not paid. This is seen as wasting police time and not acting as a punishment or deterrent.

UK courts to enforce US bankruptcy rulings

Monday 9 August 2010 at 6:57 am | In News | Post Comment Since 30 July 2010, bankruptcy decisions made by US courts can be enforced in England and Wales. The Court of Appeal so ruled in the case of a trust created by Eurofinance SA. Previously US bankruptcy judgments were not enforceable in the UK unless a separate UK action had been started on the same grounds.

The Court of Appeal ruling centred around British Virgin Islands-registered Eurofinance, which was owned by Adrian Roman, a British businessman.

Eurofinance created The Consumers Trust (TCT), which carried out a sales promotion scheme to US consumers who were given cashable vouchers if they bought goods in certain shops and could redeem them after three years.

Lord Justice Ward found in his ruling that only a small number of customers redeemed the vouchers because they had to undergo “a complex and obscure process involving memory and comprehension”.

Lord Justice Ward ruled that the ordinary rules for not enforcing foreign judgments did not apply to bankruptcy proceedings, however.

The removal of the requirement for duplicative actions either side of the Atlantic is an important change.

The case may be appealed.

National Minimum Wage from 1st October 2010

Wednesday 4 August 2010 at 9:42 am | In News | Post Comment See The National Minimum Wage Regulations 1999 (Amendment) Regulations 2010

* the principal rate of the national minimum wage increases from £5.80 to £5.93 per hour;
* the age at which this rate becomes payable is reduced from 22 to 21;
* the rate paid to workers aged between 18 and 20 increases from £4.83 to £4.92 per hour;
* the rate to be paid to workers aged below 18, who have ceased to be of compulsory school age, increases from £3.57 to £3.64 per hour;
* apprentices who (i) are employed under a contract of apprenticeship, or who are engaged under Government arrangements in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, (as specified in the NMW Regs 1999 Reg 13(6)(b)), and (ii) are within the first 12 months of that employment or engagement or who have not attained the age of 19, will receive a national minimum wage of £2.50 per hour;
* the per day value of the accommodation amount, which is applicable where an employer provides a worker with living accommodation, increases from £4.51 to £4.61 for each day that accommodation is provided.

Although there is a separate 25p increase in the London living wage to £7.85 per hour, there is no compulsion on London employers to pay more than the national minimum wage.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has announced that the minimum salary level for trainee solicitors is to remain at the level set last year (£18,590 for those working in Central London – £19,040 recommended – and £16,650 for those working elsewhere in England and Wales – £16,940 recommended.

Five Minutes With: Jonathan Sumption QC

Saturday 31 July 2010 at 3:38 pm | In News | Post Comment

Five Minutes With: Jonathan Sumption QC

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Law reform – one prosecution in 800 years justifies old offence

Saturday 31 July 2010 at 7:29 am | In News | Post Comment A Church of England vicar, Reverend Alex Brown, was found guilty this week of carrying out the biggest ever fake wedding involving 360 illegal immigrants.

Brown is the only vicar in 800 years to be convicted of failing to read out the banns (asking the congregation if they knew of ‘any just cause or impediment’ why two people may not marry).

At St Leonards, East Sussex, Brown married up to eight couples a day between 2005 and 2009, once married they were able to obtain a visa to stay in Britain.

In 2004, new rules were brought in to bring vicars into line with registrars who were required to make thorough checks. But Brown switched to the ancient banns method of marriage rather than using the common licence, which meant he was able to conduct ceremonies in secret.

The church tried, and failed, to deal with the matter internally. Home Office officials noticed the startling number of immigration applications from foreign newlyweds listing Brown’s church and called in the police.

The Law Commission often cites an absence of prosecutions as the reason for repealing legislation but in this case this ancient provision has proved its worth. Under the Marriage Act 1949 the penalty is 14 years imprisonment.

Read more, here

At last, a statute book – after 800 years

Friday 30 July 2010 at 8:24 am | In News | Post Comment The Ministry of Justice has launched legislation.gov.uk, which brings together every single piece of UK legislation, from Magna Carta (and before) to the present day, in one place, for the first time.

The UK is the first country in the world to open up its statute book in this way. Legislation.gov.uk is a public website and it is free. Until now, the phrase “the statute book” was mere usage, now it is a reality.

The website went live on 29 July 2010; it contains every single law ever made in the UK, including all revisions throughout legal history since 1267. The site will be updated every day at 2.30pm.

The new website cost £419,000 to create from last year’s financial budget. It consists of 6.5 million web pages and a further 6.5 million PDF documents.

The site makes it easy for people to use the data to create mobile phone apps or add it to their own websites.

The Office of Public Sector Information and the Statue Law Database’s will be shut down.

Broccoli and tomato patents – European Patent Office

Tuesday 27 July 2010 at 3:09 pm | In News | Post Comment This week, at the European Patent Office in Munich, the appeals board is debating whether to allow patents on broccoli and tomatoes.

Broccoli contains cancer-fighting (anti-carcinogenic) properties and in 2002, a British company Plant Bioscience Ltd was granted a patent by the European Patent Office for a method it developed which identified the anti-carcinogenic properties of broccoli, enabling the company to selectively breed plants with a high concentration of this property.

But the patent also covered the plants selected and produced by this method, not just the technical process itself, essentially giving the British company a European patent on broccoli.

Opponents say this is essentially a biological process is not patentable.

Tomatoes too have been patented. In 2000 an Israeli company that found a way to breed tomatoes with less water was awarded a patent. Opponents including Greenpeace have appealed against these patents.

Similar patents already exist, but the broccoli patent will set a precedent and affect future cases regarding plant or animal patents.

The European Patent Office has responsibility only to determine whether a new technology is innovative and applicable enough to be given a patent, the broccoli breeding techniques are advanced enough to warrant patent protection.

It is not the patent office’s responsibility to assess social, economic, or ecological implications, which means new European regulations specifically banning patents like these would be needed to stop the broccoli initiative.

The appeals board should decide on the broccoli patent this week, but their decision will probably not be made public until later in the year.

Computer software predicts offences

Sunday 25 July 2010 at 8:08 am | In News | 1 Comment
The Guardian reports that two British police forces have begun trials of computer software which predicts where and when crimes will be committed.

The system, known as Blue CRUSH (Criminal Reduction Utilising Statistical History) evaluates patterns of past and present incidents, then combines the information with a range of data including crime reports, intelligence briefings, offender behaviour profiles and even weather forecasts. This is used to identify potential hot spots and flashpoints, so police forces can allocate resources to areas where particular crimes are most likely to occur.

Successful long-term trials in Memphis, Tennessee, where the police department credits Blue CRUSH as the key factor behind a 31% reduction in overall crime and a 15% fall in violent crime. The system has also been credited with improving morale among officers of the Memphis police by boosting arrest rates and helping them to feel as if they are “making a difference”.

Guardian report, here