Criminal

The criminal court backlog has grown and the number of part-time judges has fallen. 

The Law Commission has reported that its recommendations on espionage, set out in its ‘Protection of Official Data’ report, were implemented in the National Security Act 2023 (NSA 2023). 

HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) has published a blog on ‘People, progress and purpose in the criminal courts’, written by the Chief Executive of HMCTS, Nick Goodwin.

Following an urgent disclosure hearing, the Chair of the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry, Sir Wyn Williams, has announced that all future inquiry requests for evidence to the Post Office will carry a notice under section 21 of the Inquiries Act 2005 (IA 2005) which carries the threat of criminal sanction. 

The Nuremberg trials laid the groundwork for personal international criminal liability, and the process by which Vladimir Putin may one day be held responsible. In this week’s NLJ, Simon Parsons, associate lecturer at Bath Spa University, looks at the lack of individual liability for international crime before 1945.

In the first of a two-part series, Simon Parsons charts the development of individual liability for international crimes

Could advances in lawtech provide a much-needed silver bullet for the UK’s ailing criminal justice system? Dr Charanjit Singh weighs up the opportunities & challenges

Guidelines for sentencing people convicted of perverting the course of justice and witness intimidation offences have been published for the first time

Non-lawyer Nick Ephgrave, a former assistant commissioner of the Met Police (2019-2022) and chief constable for Surrey police (2015-2019), has been appointed as the Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), replacing Lisa Osofsky

Recent judgments have highlighted the interaction between abortion time limits, criminal law & human rights, as David Walbank KC explains