She announced last week she will bring forward statutory instruments implementing both actions, which were recommended in 2023 by Clare Wade KC’s independent Domestic Homicide Sentencing Review.
Mahmood said strangulation was involved in nearly one third of murder cases analysed by Wade’s review, and is now recognised as a method of exerting power and control. In more than one third of cases, the murder occurred at the end or perceived end of the relationship—‘the final controlling act of an abusive partner’.
She anticipates the legislation will come into force in 2025.
Mahmood has asked the Law Commission to review the law of homicide and the sentencing framework for murder. She told MPs she was concerned about ‘the interactions between the law on homicide and joint enterprise and the extent to which the law reflects a modern understanding of the effects of domestic abuse.
‘Following the Nottingham attacks last year, the families of the victims have also called for homicide law reform, particularly with regard to how diminished responsibility should be reflected in the classification of homicide offences’. Other concerns include ‘the inadequate reflection of prior abuse in minimum terms for abusive men who kill their female victims, and disproportionately long tariffs for women who kill their male abusers’.
Mahmood said this week an extra four prisons with an additional 14,000 prison spaces will be built by 2031, at a cost of £2.3bn
Law Society president Richard Atkinson welcomed the investment but warned ‘it will be essential that building more prisons is matched by investment in legal aid, the Crown Prosecution Service and courts’.
Fielding justice questions in Parliament this week, justice minister Sarah Sackman said the government has increased Crown Court sitting days this year by 500 days. However, ‘demand in the criminal courts is increasing at a faster rate than the actions we are able to take,’ she said. ‘We have to look at fundamental reform to address the serious backlogs we inherited’.
