Revisiting misconduct in public office (Pt 2)

• Reform proposals would give a clear distinction between public office offences and other offences such as manslaughter and theft/fraud.

In the first article on the Law Commission’s report ‘Misconduct in Public Office’ (Law Com no 397), it was noted that the Law Commission recommended that this common law offence should be abolished (see ‘Revisiting misconduct in public office’, NLJ, 19 March 2021). However, the report does not recommend abolition without replacement, because that would potentially encourage or facilitate corruption and dereliction of public duty which could undermine confidence in government and public services. In addition, there are five situations listed in the report where no other offence may be available, or would be inadequate to address the criminality (pp39–40, para 3.49); for example, the neglect of duty leading to serious harm, to individuals and to the public interest such as a child safety officer failing to perform basic checks leading to damaging