HARM INDEX IS HARMFUL

This blog along with many more authoritative sources has long been sceptical of so called crime statistics.  The use of tick box mentality of recording has long been questioned.  To the despair of many that methodology is so widespread it is endemic among both government and non governmental organisations; the Sentencing Guidelines produced for magistrates and judges  are a perfect example. This "bible" of sentencing attempts to categorise sentences by a combination of harm to the supposed victim and culpability of offender.  And now a "crime harm index" is to be deployed by police to classify the significance of different offences taking into account the number of offenders jailed for the crime including violence, knife and gun crime and the average sentences imposed.  Considering that about 95% of all crime that comes to a court begins and ends in magistrates` courts  with six months custody maximum it is likely that effects of inevitable prioritisation by police will be based on crown court statistics of the remaining 5%. An additional (overlooked?) factor seems to be the designation and weight to be given to suspended sentences where the decision to suspend custody is based primarily on an assessment of the offender as opposed to the effects of the crime itself.  An additional flaw IMHO is that people, I dislike the term so commonly used and abused, victims,   invariably do not have similar or common reactions to the crime inflicted upon them. There are those who can put the experience, however traumatic, behind them and those who wallow in their own misfortune over the most minor transgression to their property, person or psyche. 

It is almost certain that police will use this new indexation to target their diminishing resources and will inevitably issue so called statistical evidence to justify their so called efficiency.  Such activity distorts that which is itself being measured whether it`s GCSE and A Level results or an indication of a hospital`s ability to deal with its workload.  This blogger will need some convincing that this harm index is less than harmful to public accountability of police. 

NEW JUSTICE SECRETARIES AND KNIFE CRIME

Latest knife crime information available here.

Sooner or later every Justice Secretary promises that those possessing knives or similar in a public place will face the full wrath of the law. It seems that however much the incumbent huffs and puffs those who undertake the sentencing of such offenders take a different view.  Let`s wait and see but IMHO time will really tell.

BENEATH THE TIMES

Lessons will be learned. How often is that the final sentence uttered by somebody reading or writing from a prepared script to apologise for the failings of some authority, organisation or quango when public ire has forced remedial action to be taken over long known failings which more often than not have been covered up by those in the know.  So many Chief Constables and other senior police officers have resigned or been fired in the last 15 years that there is no easily obtained source to see the extent of their failings and/or wrong doings. In similar fashion many hospital trusts have been castigated for being unable to deliver the required standard of care demanded medically and in some cases legally.  When such happenings are finally recognised government drags its feet to the shame of all of us whose trust has been misplaced.  The current scandal at the post office took a TV programme to shame the government. The tainted blood scandal going back decades is, to this very day, not fully resolved but with every dying victim the compensation will be lessoned. Retribution for the Hillsborough tragedy might still to be said, incomplete after over 30 years. 

And so to the Times Crime and Justice Commission now published.  In The Times today there is a synopsis under the following headings:-

• Shoplifting, robbery and anti social behaviour
• Knife crime and gangs
• Violence against women and girls
• Cybercrime and fraud
• Terrorism, radicalisation and online harms
• The role of technology
• The causes of crime
• Policing
• The courts
• Sentencing
• Prisons and probation

These topics have not appeared from an alien planet; they have been systematically ignored by those with the power to have done something about them years or even decades ago.

There are common causes which link the above with examples in the opening paragraph:  I would suggest that apart from misguided parsimony in the allocation of adequate funding there is a tolerance to or acceptance of incompetence in the highest reaches of management and/or a preference by government for brushing under the political carpet those matters which would cause embarrassment or worse still affect the chances of some favoured MPs being re-elected.    

Shoplifting is a perfect example.  With much reduced police numbers and no time or personnel available to investigate; half magistrates courts closed and a decimated probation service lead to reduced sentencing combined with no prison cells for short custodial sentencing of recidivists. Result is an explosion in such crime.  A similar tale of woe is seen re theft of mobile phones.  Similar chains have been created with similar links in so many aspects of what has been since the beginning of this millenium a woke attitude to so much that held our society together. 

There has been much discussion about the increase of autocracy in the world.  Autocrats including the one causing recent economic headaches don`t appear from Aladdin's  magic lamp; they are a result of democratic processes which have developed since 1945 failing many sections of a society.  It`s not inconceivable that in 2029 with another showman as prime minister experts will wonder how such a nation as the UK could fall from grace.

In 1927 the BBC adopted the motto, "Nation Shall Speak Peace Unto Nation".  That phrase encompassed what this country thought it stood for.  Hitler had already published Mein Kampf and Mussolini had been in power for five years.  Few could foresee what was around the corner.  We have had 25 years of moral, social, financial and political decline. There will be some{many?} who will vent their frustrations at the ballet box.  So many countries have voted for authoritarianism, why should we think we are any different?  That is the hidden message beneath the report from The Times. ​

IS THE END NIGH FOR BRITISH JUSTICE?

Many will be no longer fascinated by the recent attempts by China, Japan, India, USA to land unmanned space vehicles on the moon. Perhaps those who were agog at watching live on TV the first time that human beings walked on the moon in July 1969 are now just passive observers to the many sociological and political changes that afflict the planet  and have changed the face of this country as much as any war might have done in decades past.  

With a general election expected before Christmas pollsters will be bombarding the media with the results and opinions of their paymasters on what is likely to influence the electorate in our individual voting decisions.  No doubt previous successes from before the age of Tik Tok  will be rehatched to reach a generation that was in short trousers when Labour ended its 13 year reign in the House of Commons.  “It's the economy stupid” was a phrase coined by James Carville in 1992 when he was advising Bill Clinton in his successful run for the White House.  Like the rotten boroughs of times past, by all accounts an extra £1,000 per annum in the pocket of Mr, Mrs or Ms average earner`s bank account will be enough to buy a vote.  The esoteric notions of foreign policy or mass hysteria over a foreign war are unlikely to be considered worthy of mention in any through the letterbox leaflets.  Unfortunately the deliberate break up of our once admired justice system will be similarly classified; not worthy of debate but arguably in its many forms just as likely to affect our lives as a penny on or off any taxable item.  

We all depend on the police.  Their popularity with the public seems to rise and fall like a child on a trampoline.  On one hand events of the years since the brutal murder of Sarah Everard have exposed that there aren`t just some misbegotten rotten apples but rotten barrels full of misbegotten rotten apples.  But on that other hand it is the police who stand between peace on the streets and anarchy.  When PC Paul Fisher was acquitted of dangerous driving in November last year four years after  he crashed on his way to the scene where Sudesh Amman had stabbed two people  there were some murmurings that he had "got off".  That he was on trial at all for attempting to save innocent lives seemed incongruous to many within and without the policing and legal professions.  His case seems to sum up the push me pull me of Dr Doolittle fame in our attitudes to policing.  

Whilst I was active the persistent shoplifters had a pseudo legal adornment to their propensity to steal; "prolific", the essence of which was that even when an individual case was of low value an offender with a history of dozens or perhaps hundreds of previous convictions was to be treated for the entirety of his convictions thus ensuring that the maximum sentence of six months immediate custody was available as a true reflection of his/her law breaking.  That was the theory but the practice was very different last year.  Recorded offences rose 25% but charges fell.  In the year ending 30/6/23 police recorded 365,164 shoplifting offences but only around 12% of suspects were charged.  In the year before Covid almost 19% of suspects were charged. This decline is just a symptom of failures for more serious matters.  If the government proceeds with its stated intention to remove custodial sentences from the arsenal of disposals at magistrates courts one can expect an exponential rise in theft from shops and an increasing number of stores having security guards  inside and outside their premises as in most large retail premises in America. 

 Knife possession and knife crime have both increased and despite the wooly words of Justice Secretaries since 2010 the proportion of knife offences resulting in a suspended sentence has increased by almost 100% to the end of September 2023 resulting in almost a quarter of such offenders avoiding prison.  Further statistics show that even for repeat knife offenders in the same period 40% were not sentenced to immediate custody despite legislation that instructed judges to do just that.  

Between 2017 and 2021 more than 35,000 of the 142,275 motorists who totted up 12 points avoided being banned due to claiming 'exceptional hardship'. From my own personal knowledge and experience [posted here many times and available using the search box]  magistrates are too quick to offer relief to drivers with 12 or more penalty points.  A Google search shows that hundreds of solicitors are advertising their expertise in arguing successfully for "exceptional hardship".  Their lucrative income stream and magistrates misplaced sympathies must surely come under scrutiny by a future Justice Secretary and be formalised.  

And so to our judges who can be castigated for speaking out of turn but can be incompetent in their sentencing without retribution unless the case is particularly a high profile one attracting photogenic witnesses, available finance or public relations experts and sometimes all three.  In the last 20 years prolific offenders represented nearly half of all convictions; 243,000 people aged over 21 with at least 16 convictions or cautions. In 2022 hyper prolific offenders with 45 or more convictions or cautions offended almost 10,000 times and were subject to non custodial sentences 53% of occasions.  

Hundreds of judicial decisions in sentencing miscreants, which have been made according to the Sentencing Guidelines, have been tossed aside.  Known only to individual judges offenders who should be in jail are walking the streets because the MOJ has instructed the judiciary to use non custodial outcomes because the prison population is at breaking point.  Recent police and judicial decisions regarding the treatment of those who openly spout religious hate in their marches for so called Palestinian freedom from "the river to the sea" are bringing this government to a point of no return in the interface between anarchy and democracy.  Simple but deep philosophical questions on the freedom of judges` sentencing options, jurors` rights to bring in "perverse" verdicts, police interpretations of the law in conflict with parliament`s interpretation of said law, prison governors` and parole boards` decisions in overriding original sentencing decisions and many other policies and decisions below the public horizon are about to be tested. MOJ spending figures show a planned 4.8% cut in operational spending on justice to £10bn in 2024/25 from £10.5bn in 2023/24.  Russian oligarchs, their estranged wives, Arab property developers, disgruntled media stars and others similar might consider London the best place to spend their favoured currency on their favourite high priced KCs but for Josephine Bloggs alighting from the Clapham all electric omnibus needing help on a dark winter night as she walks home the legal future is bleak.  Is the end nigh for British justice? Can somebody help?

KNIFE PREVENTION ORDERS; PAPERING OVER THE CRACKS

I have posted more than a few times on ASBOs and the like. Use the search box for posts.  Essentially they are civil orders breaching of which is a criminal offence.  I would term them displacement orders insofar as eg Drink Banning Orders can order the miscreant to do his/her boozing in another county or another town.  There have even been cases where the order has been nationwide.  They are IMHO a complete waste of time and an abrogation of our society to deter and if necessary punish people for their criminality.  But and it`s a big "but" they are simple and cheap to operate. And for the last nine years it appears that our criminal justice system is like the original motto of Tesco; pile it high and pile it cheap. The ASBO, CRASBO and DBO`s latest incarnation is the Knife Crime Prevention Order.  For actual details access this link. Stop and search operations were drastically curtailed by Theresa May as Home Secretary because it was asserted that they unfairly targeted young black men notwithstanding the fact that in many areas especially London it was young black men who were most likely to be victims of knife attacks. The spate of such attacks in London appears not to be met by police in sufficient numbers to show that the situation is under control. Thus this latest innovation.  I will not repeat the caveats expressed in the link above but it is my strong belief that this so called initiative will fail in its intention and will truly further alienate young black men.  This time there will be good cause for the resentment that will surely follow and that will make the relationship between them and police even more fractious. It is another example of increasing the powers of police to control our society by suspicion rather than by evidence; a catch all associated more often with jurisdictions where acting according to law is an afterthought rather than a priority.  These orders are just another example of papering over the cracks caused by the slashing of resources since 2010.

INEQUALITY OF ARMS + UNLEVEL PLAYING FIELD

The Victim Personal Statement scheme was introduced in England and Wales in 2001 following a commitment in the Victims' Charter of 1996. The right to submit a VPS is contained in the Victims' Code. In contrast to other jurisdictions the right is not currently based in statute. The Code of Practice for Victims of Crime in England and Wales is available here. The VPS doesn`t  affect the nature of the sentence on its own but its purpose is to help the judge to make a better informed decision on sentencing by taking into account the overall effect the crime has had on the victim. It follows that the quality of the statement might persuade a judge to override the level of sentence according to the guidelines.  Can it honestly now be the case that the system is truly neutral when the result of an action according to the prosecution [victim] is a consideration indicating that crimes of ostensible equality result in unequal sentencing? The concept of equality before the law or level playing field is supposed to convince British citizens that long standing traditions now brought up to modern standards are the birthright of all. And despite rare exceptions we are expected to believe that the old adage British is Best applies to the forms of justice encountered daily not only through the legal system but with myriad councils, tribunals and supervisory bodies etc. In polite terms there will be little disagreement that the preceding sentence is now wishful thinking or perhaps colloquially, bollocks.

Early training as a magistrate in the years before the millenium emphasised that the so called legal level playing field between state and defendant was a pillar of justice. How compliant my colleagues and I were to listen blithely to the trainer. Equality of arms was another euphemism employed to imbibe we newbies with the philosophy that nowhere on this Earth was there a justice system where individuals were more able to be assured that they would receive a fair hearing and trial where they would have every opportunity to plead their innocence.




I think my disillusionment was triggered by the establishment of the victim surcharge introduced in the UK in April 2007 as a flat rate of £15 initially only applied to offenders receiving a fine; however it has since been expanded to apply to most criminal sentences with the amount varying depending on the severity of the sentence and the offender's age, essentially making offenders contribute to the cost of supporting victims and witnesses of crime. The current rates are available to view here. But the proceeds are not ring fenced for actual victims of crime: proceeds are pooled into a general fund used to finance victim support services in general. Unlike fines the charge is not means tested.




Level playing field or equality of arms is currently just a joke akin to the Hollywood advice, “Never bring a knife to a gunfight”. A ruinous combination of legal aid lawyers` derisory fees and increasingly raised income levels before an application for legal aid is possible, loads the odds firmly with the state and against the defendant. The introduction of the Single Justice Procedure in 2015 was an anathema to those who considered that it was a step too far in favour of the state. Between 1 April 2019 and 30 September 2023, some 3,102,392 criminal cases were processed by the Single Justice Service as the S was renamed.

Statistics on SJP are hard to come by.  What can be said is that about 40,000 cases monthly are processed but the whole process is a carbuncle on the face of justice.   A Freedom of Information Request of 2021 is copied below. 

request-@whatdotheyknow.com
Disclosure Team
Ministry of Justice
102 Petty France
London
SW1H 9AJ

data.access@justice.gov.

5th July 2021

Dear 
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request – 2xxxxxxxx
Thank you for your request received on 5th June 2021 in which you asked for the following information from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ):

Since its inception;
1. How many cases have been dealt with by the Single Justice Procedure annually?
2. Of the above how many defendants in each of the years above responded with a
plea?
3. Of the pleas from question 2. how many were guilty pleas?
4. Of those pleading not guilty in each of the above years since inception how many actually went to trial at magistrates courts?
5. Of those at trial per Q4. how many were acquitted?
6. How many cases brought under Covid 19 regulations have been pursued through the SJP in 2020?
7. Of the numbers per Q6. how many responded with a plea?
8. Of those in answer to Q7. how many were guilty pleas?
9. Of those pleading not guilty in Q7. how many elected trial at magistrates court?
10. Of those electing trial as per Q9. how many were acquitted?
11. How many magistrates are currently trained and eligible to be included in the approved list as Single Justices?
12. Please list the courts where the SJP is functioning.

Your request has been handled under the FOIA.
It has been answered by Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) on behalf of MoJ.

I can confirm that HMCTS/MoJ holds the information that you have requested. However, to provide it as the request currently stands would exceed the cost limit set out in the FOIA. Section 12(1) of the FOIA means a public authority is not obliged to comply with a request for information if it estimates the cost of complying would exceed the appropriate limit. The appropriate limit for central government is set at £600. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 3.5 working days determining whether the department holds the information, and locating, retrieving and extracting the information.

The MoJ publishes information regarding the outcomes of criminal proceedings. However it is not possible to separately identify case outcomes for Single Justice Procedures (SJP) from the centrally collated Courts Proceedings Database. As such it is not possible to answer questions (5) and (10) within in the specified cost limits.

The information that you have requested in these questions would be held in individual case files for the last three years (In accordance with MoJ Record Retention and Disposition
Schedules), but in order to provide it HMCTS/MoJ would have to identify the files in question and then locate them, retrieve and extract the information requested. We believe that the cost of doing that would exceed the appropriate limit. Consequently, we are not obliged to comply with your request.

Although we cannot answer your request at the moment, we may be able to answer a refined request within the cost limit. You may wish to consider, for example, reducing the
time period covered by your request and / or specifying particular Courts to be included in scope. Please be aware that we cannot guarantee at this stage that a refined request will fall within the FOIA cost limit, or that other exemptions will not apply. In particular you should be aware of the FOIA exemptions that apply under Section 32 and which relate to information that is only held for the purpose of the Court Record.

Where Section 12 applies to one part of a request we refuse all of the request under the cost limit as advised by the Information Commissioner’s Office. I am therefore not obliged to answer the remainder of your questions. However, under Section 16 of FOIA It shall be the duty of a public authority to provide advice and assistance, so far as it would be reasonable to expect the authority to do so, to persons who propose to make, or have made, requests for information to it. Within that, I can tell you that some of the data that you have requested is held within different HMCTS / MoJ systems and we have extracted it as below. Please note that this data is taken from different sources and cannot necessarily be reconciled with other data provided.

Regarding questions (1) and (6):
Year 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
The number of cases dealt with by the Single Justice Procedure annually since its inception. 12,660 357,006 687,645 738,028 786,546 529,408
The number of cases brought under Covid 19 regulations and pursued through the SJP in 2020.3,610

NOTES relating to the above data.
• The case count is based upon the case completion date falling between each reporting period (eg. 1st January 2015 to 31st December 2015) where the initiation type is equal to Single Justice Notice.
• Data are taken from a live management information system and can change over
time.
• Data are management information and are not subject to the same level of checks as official statistics.
• The data provided is the most recent available and for that reason might differ slightly from any previously published information.
• Data has not been cross referenced with case files.
• Although care is taken when processing and analysing the data, the details are subject to inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale case management system and is the best data that is available.

Regarding questions (2) to (4) and (7) to (9), it has been assumed that they all relate to numbers of defendants.

Year All defendants
Plea entered
Guilty No plea entered
plea
Not guilty plea
2015 12,031 2,779 286 8,966
2016 329,406 83,333 10,196 235,877
2017 696,935 169,585 24,121 503,229
2018 761,995 185,107 26,276 550,612
2019 784,325 199,279 23,136 561,910
2020 535,590 145,605 11,612 378,373

Of which: COVID-19 offences
2020 4,007 437 23 3,547

NOTES relating to the above data.
• SJP offences under the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015, allows cases involving
adults charged with summary offences to be dealt with in a single magistrate sitting without the prosecutor or defendant being present.
• Only one offence is counted for each defendant in the case. If there is more than one offence per defendant that complete on the same day, a set of validation rules applies to select one offence only and these relate to the longest duration, seriousness and the lowest sequence number of the offence.
• Includes cases completed in the magistrates' courts during the specified time period,
where no further action is required by the magistrates' courts.
• Includes cases that are committed to the Crown Court.
• SJP cases are identified in the centrally collated data based on the ‘initiation type’ recorded against the case. It is known that a small number of cases have incorrect initiation types recorded against them, with incompatible offences under SJP included within the overall reported counts, e.g. triable either way, indictable and summary imprisonable offences categorised under 'Other offences'. It is estimated that this accounts for well under 1% of the total defendants dealt with across the series. Where errors do exist the levels are monitored and appropriate action to understand and improve data quality are taken.

• Estimates from Q3 2020 exclude a small number of cases which have transitioned to the Common Platform system in the early adopter site (Derby and Chesterfield magistrates' courts) from September 2020.
• Following a technical issue during the LIBRA Management Information System refresh, a small amount of data was not included for a single day in September. It is estimated this that has resulted in a small number (less than 1%) of case disposals being omitted from the latest quarterly totals. A refresh of the data will take place next quarter.
• Offence classification and categorisation as per the latest published 'Offence group classification' available at the following link
(https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterlydecember-2020).


• All Not Guilty pleas under SJP are regarded as going to trial.
• The defendant counts supplied are sourced from the same underlying administrative system as the case counts, however they are distinct extracts taken at different points in time and as such caution should be taken when comparing absolute
volumes across the series.
• The defendant counts form the basis of the published criminal court statistics timeliness measures released by the Ministry of Justice. The overall counts may differ from HMCTS caseloads due to the validation which is applied to this data stream, e.g. defendants removed from underlying counts where timeliness validation checks are failed such as blank dates or dates out of logical sequence.
• Published criminal court outcomes statistics released as part of the Criminal Justice Statistics bulletin series does not allow for the separate identification of Single Justice Procedure cases. As such it is not possible to produce statistics which detail the volume of acquittals for SJP cases/defendants dealt with. Also, regarding Question (11), as at May 2021 HMCTS had 12333 adult magistrates. As a matter of practice, newly appointed magistrates are not allocated until they have passed heir appraisal (threshold appraisal). This takes approximately one year and so not all of these may be finally allocated at the date of writing this letter. HMCTS management information systems do not hold data specifically regarding the number of Magistrates within their first year and the FOIA does not oblige a public authority to create information to answer a request if the requested information is not held. The duty is to only provide the recorded information held.

Regarding Question (12), I can confirm that SJP is regarded as functioning at all Magistrates Courts in England and Wales. However, the information requested is exempt from disclosure under FOIA Section 21 because it is reasonably accessible to you. The information can be accessed via the following links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_courts_in_England_and_Wales and https://www.gov.uk/find-court-tribunal

For guidance on how to structure successful requests please refer to the ICO website on the following link: https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/official-information/
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2004/3244/pdfs/uksi_20043244_en.pdf 

Appeal Rights
If you are not satisfied with this response you have the right to request an internal review by responding in writing to one of the addresses below within two months of the date of this
response.
data.access@justice.gov.uk

Disclosure Team, Ministry of Justice
You do have the right to ask the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to investigate any aspect of your complaint. However, please note that the ICO is likely to expect internal
complaints procedures to have been exhausted before beginning their investigation.

Yours sincerely (on behalf of MoJ),

On the topic of equality before the law the situation is becoming very clear that that supposed fundamental is now but a historic myth. Over the last few months the attitude to public disorder by police is either confused or deliberately slanted so that some miscreants are more liable than others to be arrested many for s.5 offending. As an example "speedy justice" was applied to those found guilty after the riots following the Southport murders.  In addition they were punished in many cases at the upper end of the scale whilst offending non violent keyboard behaviour in some cases was more harshly treated than many observers considered it was warranted. 

A highly publicised case of the MP who assaulted a constituent in the early hours is interesting.  His sentence of immediate custody was appealed and subsequently suspended for two years.  Surely for a person in his position the sentence should have increased on a similar basis to that of another offender whose personal circumstances and/or status are used to seek to minimise the sentence; eg the doctor on call who succeeds with "exceptional hardship" to reduce a driving ban or the father with extensive caring responsibilities whose custodial sentence over Christmas is suspended.  A person in a highly responsible position with all the trappings of a good life should not be molly coddled.  

Immigration is a huge topic in the western world.  When our legal system seems to be operating in woke mode that perception rightly or wrongly can often speak louder than any pacifying  statements from government.  Below is a story from Today`s Times.  It wasn`t the first of its type and most certainly not the last.

The criminal justice system might be beyond repair.  With current developments demanding that circumstances unforeseen even a month ago necessitate budgetary rethinking it would take a brave [or foolhardy] observer to have much confidence in court waiting times to improve to any great extent although if some police forces continue to ignore requests for neighbourhood crimes to be investigated running to stand still might be an accurate description for the Ministration Of Justice. 

KNIFE CRIME AGAIN

So..........here we go again just like clockwork..........a government promising to go down hard on those carrying  knives.  We`ve been here so often before that it appears to be a right of passage for newly installed ministers at Justice to proudly announce their latest attempt to make our streets safer although no one name is associated with this latest pronouncement.  

This was just one of previous attempts to deter and/or punish those caught on the streets.  For the numbers watchers reading this a comparison between last year`s and current figures might be of interest. The arguments, however, will not go away.  The Met Commissioner recently expressed his opinion that reduction in stop and search has hampered his force`s ability to take weapons off the streets.  Before the last Holyrood election in Scotland where the SNP won a majority Scottish Labour had promised prison for all knife carriers.  That proposed policy did not go down well with police in Scotland.  I would be surprised if south of the Wall opinions differ.

PAPERING OVER THE CRACKS

Chris Grayling and his cohort at Petty France just don`t stop with their press releases.  If the efficient manner in which they are propagated were typical of the efficient thinking of those behind their publication there would be cause for a modicum of cheer.  However even in this season of goodwill I find little about the latest offering that is anything more than a lot of hot air.

His main innovation is to add the “punishment” element he considers missing from a third of community sentences.  These consist of fine, unpaid work, curfew or exclusion from certain areas.  The Ministry of Justice website has the following to say about fines:-

“Fines are the most common sentence passed at court, accounting for around two-thirds of all sentences handed out by the criminal courts (66.5 per cent in the 12 months ending September 2012). The fine rate is consistent with that seen in the same period for the previous year, and has declined from a peak of 70.3 per cent in the 12 months ending September 2004. The decline has been due to a decline in prosecutions and subsequent conviction for summary motoring offences - the offence type for which fines are most commonly given. The latest figure of 816,600 fines represents a decrease of 5. 2 per cent compared to the 12 months ending September 2011, and the lowest number of fines handed out over the last 11 years.”

To quote from this blog on 21/11/2013:-

What an example of the spin doctor`s art of obfuscation by omission. The total amount of unpaid fines is estimated at £2 billion and rising. In addition over £130 million  annually is written off because the state cannot find or squeeze the cash from offenders. Perhaps the Secretary of State instead of pursuing his rehabilitation of offenders by results policy with the decimation of the probation service as a by product or playing hardball with G4S and SERCO he would be more profitably employed in root and branch investigation of the whole process of fines from imposition to collection or otherwise as the case may be.

As far as “unpaid work” which is arguably the most punishing of community requirements; with the probation service in turmoil over privatisation the resulting omnishambles of payment by results will render any increase in throughput a disaster. 

We have all read of the scandal of the outsourcing behemoths SERCO andG4S.  This blogger for one has no confidence that an increased workload can be any more efficient than currently is the case.  Exclusion Orders are a waste of time and an insult to intelligence.  All they are is a displacement order……NIMBYism  writ large and unpleasantly. 

For donkeys years various Justice Ministers have proclaimed they will be “tough on knife crime”.  It makes good headlines but bad law. This effort will be no different.

A government which is disguising the chaos in private prisons, ruining the probation service, decimating the police forces, throwing 10% of CPS lawyer on the scrap heap, admitting that its own crime statistics are almost fraudulent and generally causing despair amongst those with inside knowledge of what`s really  happening   deserves nothing but contempt for this latest attempt to paper over the cracks it has created under the cloak of austerity.

PUBLIC DISUNITY//WHY THERESA MAY MUST GO NOW

It seems to this distant observer that a form of mob rule is gradually taking over certain areas or our lives.  On a political level Big Chief Corbyn and his indian braves have asserted that one way to achieve power is by having a 1,000,000 protesters on the streets. This should not be a surprise.  That he is an avowed Marxist who has made no secret of his intentions is clear from this speech in 2012.  As is their historical profile those of similar philosophy have been involved (allegedly) when local groups have had and are having real concerns about decisions affecting their lives made by socially and politically distant often state connected organisations. The issues surrounding the Grenfell fire, genuine and perhaps criminal, are being used to undermine the fabric of the state and it is not unlikely that a few years down the line results of inquiries and prosecutions whatever the results  will be used as stick to beat all authorities however involved.

Actions of police are under the microscope of public opinion at a wholly different level. They used to be literally a law unto themselves. Not a week goes by when that attitude is revealed still to be motivating a not inconsiderable number of police officers. Last year 108 police officers were dismissed for misconduct. The bar for sacking is set very high.  Much of the Policing and Crime Bill`s sections on police discipline became law a few months ago in the corresponding Act.  The amount of criminality within the police is quite shocking for the layman to comprehend the Met Police being the cheerleader.

As a result of public policy by the Home Office led by a certain Mrs T. May police were instructed to reduce "stop & search" and the pursuit of those using vehicles to evade arrest or questioning.  The unintended consequences have been an unholy increase in knife crime and an explosion in criminals evading arrest by using mopeds as getaway vehicles. There is considerable controversy over the numbers within these topics. That controversy is both political and statistical in quantity and quality.

What is not in doubt is the increase in mob behaviour generally when disputed matters go public epitomised by the situation of the baby Charlie and that surrounding areas where permission has been granted for fracking. Decisions by legally authorised public bodies are being challenged by no less than mob rule.  There are many definitions of "mob" but they all have a similar underlying theme of the possibility of violence resulting; "a large or disorderly crowd; especially : one bent on riotous or destructive action". 

One essential requirement for a democratic society to exist or even flourish is the freedom to demonstrate on the streets of our towns and cities and where such peaceful protest is sanctioned by police. Such freedom to protest is itself never far from dispute eg the flying of the flags of a terrorist organisation recently in London where the police did not intervene on the basis that they considered that the non military part of the organisation was indicated on the flags.   

With Brexit negotiations in effect, a left wing take over of Labour in the offing, a Tory Party in disarray, little indication of large numbers of Muslims willing to adapt to a British society and to accept their minority status, pork barrel politics to bribe the DUP and Scots Nats still howling independance, reduced public confidence in our institutions bodes ill for a harmonious future.  All those however loosely described as The Establishment must react to the twitching antennae of public mores and do their utmost to unite where there is currently disunity. Such decisiveness must come from the top. Theresa May must go NOW.

SENTENCING NEEDS UPDATING

It goes almost without saying but I`ll say it anyway; sentencing structures in this country are (to be polite) in need of drastic changes to meet with the drastic changes in society and its mores and the knowledge we now have on the sciences concerned with human behaviour.  To add to the mix no government has been or will be willing to pay the £billions necessary to face the reality of what must be spent to halt the seemingly intractable problem of criminality and the measures required to protect society from such whether the criminality is on line fraud sometimes and sometimes not covered by insurance but where there is no physical harm or violence or gangs of rampaging youths with knives or guns in their hands as is now happening all over the country.  Into the mix there is one fact which needs to be faced; about 70% of all acquisitive crime including harm to victims or property is committed by those addicted to alcohol and/or prohibited drugs.  The definition of criminal offensiveness is now almost beyond parody. Religious tolerance to changes in human behaviour once common except in Northern Ireland is now at straining point especially in some parts of a Muslim population which will soon exceed three million.  The scourge of that oldest of all viruses which had been thought to have peaked in 1944 was only slumbering as recent events in Hungary, Sweden and within the Labour Party have shown. How to react to the above is not the sort of comment common to Lord Chancellors.  All they seem able to do is mouth platitudes about knife crime and good intentions. The only hardened opinions in this country seem to be to abolish all short (ie up to six months) custodial sentences or increase jail time for serious offending. My own view posted here a few times is that institutions should be created for the compulsory incarceration of all offending addicts until they are clean and ready for rehabilitation.  Use the search box on this page "workhouse" for lengthier argument.  Meanwhile an interesting but limited item on sentencing from New Zealand caught my attention.  Access it here. 

PLUS CA CHANGE ...................

We now have the 8th Lord Chancellor/ Justice Secretary since 2010. It doesn`t need advanced mathematics to appreciate that at that rate it is impossible for anyone however gifted to truly appreciate all the nuances of the job and to set the direction of travel without the combined resources of those who keep the wheels turning ie the department`s civil servants.  But the great British public really doesn`t care about "justice" until perhaps the summons appears in their letter box.  Al they know is the few brief lines in their local paper or what they read or hear on social media:- Twitter Law. With in depth reporting of criminal matters becoming more sparse week by week, headline criminality excepted, it is cases like this which form the concept of "justice" in the public mind.  Compared to many that report seems comprehensive but it leaves the impression of "soft" justice: perhaps that is justified.  There is nothing reported by the presiding magistrate which seems to justify the leniency dished out to this offender.  Taking this a step further it is this mindset which has increasingly driven sentencing to the highest levels of severity in a generation at a time when prison conditions are fast approaching a national disgrace, probation services have yet to recover from their decimation by the most incompetent of the previous seven Lord Chancellors  and increasing emphasis on so called victim-hood. The new boy at Petty France will, no doubt as all his predecessors have done, in due course issue a long statement of how knife crime will be a priority and criminals will receive their just deserts but all I can add is plus ça change plus c'est la meme chose.

WHEN GOVERNMENT LIES WE`RE DOOMED, WE`RE ALL DOOMED

For the last week many barristers have refused to undertake legally aided briefs at crown court.  They have been driven to this desperate action by the miserly rates of pay offered by the Ministry of Justice. I am not proposing to discuss the rights and wrongs of this action but to point out the lack of coverage in many? most? national media including TV. Indeed although most days I catch bits of Sky, BBC and Channel 4 news programmes the lack of reports appears suspiciously like news management from Petty France where the MOJ has since 2010 been conducting the emasculation of our once heralded justice system. It seems that no news is the watchword.  However in the week when the Home Secretary tries to assert that drastic falls in the numbers of police officers have no significance with regard to the increase in knife crime, a view which has been demonstrated doubtful to say the least, especially in London it is instructive to discover that this major department of state described by a former Home Secretary John Reid a decade ago as being "unfit for purpose"   lied to parliament and the public when Theresa May was in charge. In 2016 against many opposing views the government legislated that schools had to collect data on their pupils` nationality and country of birth.  Many groups and organisations and parents refused to co-operate. During this time the Home Office then under our current prime minister`s regime  made it clear that the information to be collected by the Dept of Education would not be passed to its (Home Office) control for immigration purposes but that it was needed to help pupils whose first language was not English. This was an out and out lie that was recently discovered under freedom of information legislation by Schools Week.

Such actions are a disgrace to what we still consider to be our democratic way of life. It gives credence to conspiracy theorists who would see the country under the control of Jews, Masons and all manner of beings bent on reinforcing those misguided individuals` irrationality and prejudices.  This is apparent now within the Labour Party where discussion once taboo is being repeated as fact; where it is acceptable to demonise groups; where scum like Nick Griffin a nazi apologist is intending to vote Labour. See tweet below.

When government is and is seen to be lying through its teeth the bells should be ringing out loud and clear that, as the late John Laurie of Dad`s Army fame was wont to put it; "We`re doomed, we`re all doomed". 

SOCIETAL BREAKDOWN//CONSERVATIVE "BLAH" OR OPPOSITION "RHUBARB"

 

Below is the main headline from today`s Times newspaper.  

It is apparent that the press office of the MOJ is gearing up for the forthcoming general election when the hacks therein employed will have to show they`re earning their salt by pushing the same propaganda they have employed for years past when their masters fear  their period of power is slipping ever more rapidly into the control of His Majesty`s Loyal Opposition.  All those involved in the criminal justice system know full well this is a ritual and like any ritual it is symbolic only.  Just as for Catholics the body of Christ offered by the priest is but a wafer the hang `em flog `em headline lacks substance and is but a modern variation of the rune or the entrails of a chicken to be interpreted in any which way it suits the reader. No doubt there will be further similar headlines ranging from abuse of the domestic kind to xenophobic outbursts on what must be done to stop the boats via increased punishments for knife crime and castration for sex offenders.  Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

We are now at the cusp of another football season.  And once again today`s Times provides the subject matter.  

There is little doubt in my opinion that the referees will follow the hard line of their paymasters.  Unlike those above, referees` emoluments and indeed their fitness to officiate will be judged  at almost the speed of light by those who pull the financial strings within professional football.  Whether or not football clubs` and police efficiency in identifying and prosecuting those supporters for whom the beautiful game is just an opportunity to cause havoc and mayhem will bring law `n order back to the terraces is another matter. The figures below for those hooligans who have been subjected to recent football banning orders do not offer high hopes that such disgusting behaviour will be any less in the forthcoming season as in the past.  

Of course when viewing the chart it must be remembered that in the wake of the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, the Premier League suspended its 2019/20 season on 13 March and it wasn`t until 17 June that once again spectators attended.  Nevertheless an average of only 347 offenders were issued annually with a banning order over those five years.  Delving a little deeper into those numbers, considering that there were approximately 190 Premier League games played and many hundreds of cup and lower league professional matches between 1st January 2018 and 31st December 2022 the total of 1736 banning orders for the period is derisory. 

It takes more than statistics for historians to decide when a society has broken down.  Public disorder and its treatment or curtailment are one disturbing factor but combined with hidden and not so hidden police corruption the signs are there for all to see as is the failure of supervisory bodies in many professions and organisations.   But it is for government to act.  Over the next eighteen months we will find out if it is Conservative blah or Opposition rhubarb which wins the day.