The earlier approach, prompted by concern over the possible release of PC Andrew Harper’s killers, risked arbitrary distinctions between forms of manslaughter and potential judicial review challenges.
Writing in NLJ this week, Professor John Cooper KC of 25 Bedford Row and New Park Court says the revised policy is more defensible, but cautions that ministers must not treat it as a lasting answer to prison overcrowding. The law of homicide is complex and the Law Commission’s wider review may yet reshape the present categories. The 2006 report described the current law as ‘not the products of legislation enacted after wide consultation’.
Early release, new prison places, electronic tagging and probation investment may ease immediate pressure, Cooper argues, but remain ‘a sticking plaster’ for a neglected criminal justice system.
