At the State Opening of Parliament yesterday, King Charles II delivered a comprehensive speech covering criminal justice, policing and mental health implementations.
The King presented the proposed legislation to boost community policing and provide the police with more authority to support victims and assess anti-social behaviour, in the Crime and Policing and the Victims, Courts and Public Protection Bills. The King also assured that his Government will work to protect the British public from terrorism, knife crime and ‘halve violence against women and girls’ through plans that have yet to be brought forward.
The president of the Law Society of England and Wales, Nick Emmerson, backs these inclusions while noting that enacting new regulations is ‘not a panacea in the absence of adequate funding of all facets of the criminal justice system’ nor in proper, timely support. In addition, Emmerson underscores the need for ‘immediate steps’ to increase rates of criminal legal aid up 15% whilst waiting for wider reform to take place, along with an immediate £11.3 million investment to sustain early advice in civil legal aid whilst the system awaits review.
In response it was reported that Mary Prior KC, vice chair of the Criminal Bar Association, has welcomed the ‘acknowledgement that the criminal justice system needs to change’ and hoped the reforms could increase faith in the criminal justice system for both defendants and victims. She called for the Criminal Justice System to ‘be treated with the respect it deserves’ and emphasised that ‘Unless we invest in the justice system, then those who work within it will turn away from it and do other more financially rewarding and less stressful work.’
The Prison Reform Trust has also responded to welcome certain aspects of the King’s speech, such as the suggestion there will be better support for children and young adults to help prevent them from being caught up in violence crime.
Pia Sinha, Chief Executive, has also given a ‘cautious welcome’ to other points relating to longer-term agenda items that have yet to be put into practice. For example, Sinha expresses uncertainty regarding new planning laws that would allow for more prisons to be built at quicker speeds, cautioning that there also need to be efforts to ‘reduce demand’ and bring imprisonment ‘down to a sustainable and proportionate level,’ otherwise ‘we condemn prisoners to live in inhumane and indecent conditions in outdated establishments’ which should have been shut down decades ago.
Sinha also warns that there needs to be ‘careful scrutiny’ of other plans, such as the aim to tackle persistent offending by adults and to introduce measures to address shoplifting to ensure that this does not become a ‘a conveyer belt into prison for people with mental health needs or addictions.’
