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Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill was introduced in the House of Lords in early July and awaits a second reading. The Bill is formed of thirteen parts, including provisions to:

  • introduce measures for the protec...

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Ban on knives, firearms and offensive weapon

Possession of an offensive weapon is an offence if it is in public and without lawful authority or reasonable excuse. A weapon can be offensive as a matter of course (it is made for use of causing injury), adapted for such a purpose, or not adapted but carried with the inten...

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New proposed sentencing guidelines – burglary

The Sentencing Council has announced a consultation on the revision of sentencing guidelines for domestic, non-domestic and aggravated burglary offences.

The existing b...

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Prison Categorisation – A Guide

Every prisoner is given a security category. For female prisoners, there are only two options, closed or open condition. For male prisoners, there are four categories, A to D.

What do the categories mean...

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Bite Mark Evidence – Part One

What is bite mark evidence?

A bite mark is a pattern produced by the indentations of the teeth into any substance capable of being marked.

It is argued ...

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Line of Duty – The Acronym

The new series of the BBC's Line of Duty is back on our screens, with another battle ahead for the police against serious organised crime.

For those new to this drama, the first episode may well have been very confusing. T...

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Good character as mitigation

What is good character?

As far as the criminal courts are concerned, a person of good character is usually someone without convictions or cautions recorded against them. It is of particular relevance in a ...

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Encrochat

A vast number of cases are awaiting a criminal trial that will rely, to a greater or lesser extent, on the admissibility of communications made via the supposedly highly encrypted Encrochat service.

The Court of Appeal has...

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Custody Time Limits & Young Defendants – MOJ exempt children from extended custody time limits

In response to the Coronavirus pandemic, the government introduced changes to the custody time limit regulations that extended the custody time limits in the Crown Court by two months to address ongoing delays in the crim...

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Firearms – New sentencing guidelines from January 2021

Eight new guidelines have been published for Firearms offences following an earlier consultation. The guidelines will come into force on 1 January 2021.

What are sentencing guidelines?