CRIME: An Introduction to London (Firms)

A Change of Government

The July 2024 General Election saw a change from 14 years of Conservative-led governments to a Labour government under Sir Keir Starmer KC. From a criminal justice perspective, Labour’s five-point plan to “take back our streets” promised cracking down on antisocial behaviour with more neighbourhood police, tough new penalties for offenders, a plan to get knives off our streets, a specialist rape unit in every police force and a new network of Young Futures hubs. There was also a “landmark vision” to halve violence against women and girls within the next decade.

The outgoing Alex Chalk KC was replaced by Shabana Mahmood, who became the first female Lord Chancellor of the United Kingdom. Her swearing-in by the first female Chief Justice, Dame Sue Carr, marked a further milestone in British history.

The election did not pass without its own potentially criminal repercussions, namely a betting scandal leading to a Gambling Commission inquiry into a number of individuals.

Before Parliament was dissolved for the election, key bills were enacted such as the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024. This created provisions for victims of, and others affected by, criminal conduct, including key sections relating to support provided by advocates for victims such as independent sexual violence advisors (ISVAs) and independent domestic violence advisors (IDVAs). London’s Victims’ Commissioner, Claire Waxman OBE, praised the greater protection to victims provided by the higher threshold for requesting counselling records and third-party material, but lamented the omission of clauses relating to training criminal justice partners.

The Act also includes further provisions relating to the release of prisoners, the functions of the parole board and measures for those serving indeterminate sentences for public protection (IPP) in the community or on licence.

The snap announcement of the election left too little time for other bills to pass. For example, the Criminal Justice Bill was intended to contain provisions on criminal offences, police powers, sentencing and offender management, proceeds of crime, serious crime-prevention orders, nuisance begging and rough sleeping, anti-social behaviour, and police ethics and misconduct.

Prisons in Crisis

Continued pressure on the prisons remains a significant live issue both from a political and legal perspective; 2024 saw arguably more drastic measures to alleviate overcrowding than those in 2023 – which included calls by the senior presiding judge, Lord Justice Edis, to delay the sentencing of those convicted. Within two weeks of the 2024 election, the Lord Chancellor announced that, from September 2024, for at least 18 months, those serving eligible standard determinate sentences will leave prison after serving 40%, rather than 50%, in custody. This does not apply to those serving sentences for sexual and serious violent offences.

This overcrowding was further exacerbated by the August 2024 riots, which led to more than 1,000 arrests and 190 sentences of immediate imprisonment or detention. Operation Early Dawn was triggered, resurrecting emergency measures not seen since Operation Safeguard in October 2022.

With the prison population having increased by 13% in the last three years, and with the Ministry of Justice projecting that the population will hit 99,300 by the end of 2025, further measures will be required to save a prison system that is in true crisis.

New Offences and Legal Developments

The August 2024 riots highlighted the proliferation of disinformation and discriminatory campaigns online and brought the Online Safety Act 2023 into the spotlight once more. The Act was cited by Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, as not fit for purpose.

The Act created a new offence relating to threatening communications and sending false information intended to cause non-trivial harm, and it also criminalised encouraging or assisting serious self-harm, cyberflashing, intimate image abuse and epilepsy “trolling”. The strongest protections in the Act were designed for children, and crucially, the Act increased accountability for online companies, with Ofcom now the formal regulator for online safety, ensuring regulatory as well as criminal oversight of online services.

Elsewhere, there have been amendments to the Criminal Justice Act 1988, adding weapons known as “zombie-style” knives and machetes to the schedule of Offensive Weapons from 24 September 2024. This was coupled with an amnesty and compensation scheme. Further, as well as it being illegal to breed an XL bully dog since 31 December 2023, it became illegal to possess or have custody of an XL bully dog as of 1 February 2024, unless there is a valid certificate of exemption in place combined with compliance with conditions. This followed a sharp rise in deaths caused by dogs in 2023.

There will be scrutiny on continued work by this government following the Rape Review. The February 2024 progress update reported that all three initial ambitions had been achieved ahead of schedule: the number of rape offences referred by the police to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is 219% higher than the quarterly average in 2019, the number of suspects charged with adult rape-flagged offences is 174% higher, and the number of adult rape cases arriving at the crown court is higher than at any point since 2014. However, there remain questions as to whether these increased figures necessarily reflect improvement. Not only are there concerns that defendants will be denied essential protections of due process and the presumption of innocence, there are also concerns that complainants will be undermined. For example, although the increase of Section 28 hearings – whereby a complainant in serious sexual cases is cross-examined on a prerecorded video that is then played to the court – ensures that complainants avoid the trauma of giving live evidence at trial, a study by the University College London found that, since 2016, the conviction rate in rape trials involving prerecorded cross-examination is 20% lower. Questions remain as to whether an increase in the number of cases being charged and reaching court will lead to any increase in convictions.

There are continued delays in cases reaching trial, leading to a push in 2024 to prioritise long-delayed rape cases. Progress may be hampered by difficulties in recruiting trial prosecutors, with the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) publishing that 64% of prosecutors approved to conduct rape and serious sexual assault cases would not reapply for the work, citing high stress and poor pay.

Cries for reform to the law of joint enterprise became louder after a CPS pilot scheme revealed that black people were 16 times more likely than white people to be prosecuted under joint enterprise, and more than half of those prosecuted were from minority ethnic backgrounds. Whilst a Private Members Bill has been commissioned seeking legislative change, such that an individual must make a “significant contribution” to the commission of a crime before being capable of conviction, the prospect of any legislative change appears slim.

Finally, the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Act 2024 marked the first time that Parliament has legislated to quash criminal convictions. Despite its intentions to correct the mass injustice of the Horizon scandal, concerns were raised that Parliament had set a dangerous precedent and ventured into territory that is properly the preserve of the courts. We will see what criminal liability, if any, arises when Sir Wyn Williams publishes his report from the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry.

Notable Cases

The notorious Lucy Letby case attracted ongoing public fascination after she was found guilty of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder six others in August 2023. Interest was further fuelled by the publishing of an article by the New York Times, contrary to the reporting restrictions in place prior to a retrial. In May 2024, the court of appeal refused her permission to appeal against her convictions, and in July 2024, she was found guilty of attempting to murder another baby after a retrial. Finally, in September 2024, the Thirlwall Inquiry began examining the events at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

Another case that captured public interest was that of Julian Assange, which finally came to a close in June 2024 after a 14-year legal battle. A plea deal was reached whereby Mr Assange was released from HMP Belmarsh after five years and taken to the Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory, where he entered a formal plea to a single charge under the Espionage Act. He was sentenced to time already served, meaning that he could return to his native Australia.

In January 2024, in a “landmark” ruling, the court of appeal quashed the prison sentence of a heavily pregnant 22-year-old woman so that she could give birth safely. Her previous sentence of five years’ immediate imprisonment for possession of a firearm and ammunition was quashed in “exceptional circumstances” and replaced with a two-year suspended sentence. On a similar topic, the Sentencing Council introduced a new mitigating factor in April 2024 entitled ”pregnancy, childbirth and post-natal care” for the majority of offence-specific sentencing guidelines. This factor sets out what courts may consider when sentencing a pregnant or post-natal woman.