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Under constant surveillance?

10 October 2025 / Henrietta Ronson
Issue: 8134 / Categories: Features , Criminal , Technology , Artificial intelligence , Human rights
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Restriction zones for released offenders present profound legal, ethical & practical difficulties, argues Henrietta Ronson
  • Examines the roots of exclusionary legislation, government promises, the pitfalls, the troubling role of barely tested algorithmic and AI-driven risk assessments in criminal enforcement, and the lessons that can be learned from the US.

The notion of separating offenders from victims through geographical boundaries is a tale as old as time. Historically, offenders were banished into exile to punish and shame. More recently, the law has implemented legislation that strives to manage risk with protection for complainants:

  • Non-molestation orders were introduced by the Family Law Act 1996, one of the earliest UK laws allowing courts to prohibit an abuser from harassing or contacting a victim (including exclusion from certain areas).
  • Restraining orders have been available since the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.
  • Sexual harm prevention orders under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 can exclude offenders from both physical and online spaces.
  • Domestic violence protection orders and domestic abuse protection orders have been designed to
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MOVERS & SHAKERS

BCL Solicitors—Robert Lawrie

BCL Solicitors—Robert Lawrie

Commercial disputes team lead promoted to partner

Mourant—Tom Fothergill

Mourant—Tom Fothergill

Jersey finance and corporate practice welcomes new partner

Shakespeare Martineau—Solicitor apprentices

Shakespeare Martineau—Solicitor apprentices

Firm launches solicitor apprenticeship programme with inaugural cohort

NEWS
Government plans for offender ‘restriction zones’ risk creating ‘digital cages’ that blur punishment with surveillance, warns Henrietta Ronson, partner at Corker Binning, in this week's issue of NLJ
Louise Uphill, senior associate at Moore Barlow LLP, dissects the faltering rollout of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 in this week's NLJ
Judgments are ‘worthless without enforcement’, says HHJ Karen Walden-Smith, senior circuit judge and chair of the Civil Justice Council’s enforcement working group. In this week's NLJ, she breaks down the CJC’s April 2025 report, which identified systemic flaws and proposed 39 reforms, from modernising procedures to protecting vulnerable debtors
Writing in NLJ this week, Katherine Harding and Charlotte Finley of Penningtons Manches Cooper examine Standish v Standish [2025] UKSC 26, the Supreme Court ruling that narrowed what counts as matrimonial property, and its potential impact upon claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975
In this week's NLJ, Dr Jon Robins, editor of The Justice Gap and lecturer at Brighton University, reports on a campaign to posthumously exonerate Christine Keeler. 60 years after her perjury conviction, Keeler’s son Seymour Platt has petitioned the king to exercise the royal prerogative of mercy, arguing she was a victim of violence and moral hypocrisy, not deceit. Supported by Felicity Gerry KC, the dossier brands the conviction 'the ultimate in slut-shaming'
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