Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the decision by some lawyers to not participate in the prosecution of climate activists on the functioning of the legal system.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson
The “cab rank rule” is an important principle which safeguards the rule of law and ensures fair access to justice. Action such as this undermines the independence of the legal profession and is fundamentally at odds with the idea that every person is entitled to a fair trial. The impact of this action on the Crown Prosecution Service will be negligible, not least because many of those “refusing” to prosecute are not in fact qualified to do so. The Crown Prosecution Service utilises a mix of in-house advocates and agent prosecutors alongside members of the self-employed Bar. This flexibility ensures access to a large pool of high-quality advocates and I am confident that these cases will be prosecuted without undue delay. Both the Bar Council and the Criminal Bar Association have issued robust responses here: The cab rank rule and legal representation (barcouncil.org.uk) and here: Chair’s Monday Message – 27.03.23 – Criminal Bar Association |
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what assessment he has made of the (a) reasons for the reduction in rape prosecutions and (b) effect of that reduction on the reporting of rape.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The CPS is determined to drive up the number of rape and serious sexual offence (‘RASSO’) cases going to court. Too few victims are seeing justice and reversing that is an absolute priority. The reasons for the decline in prosecutions are complex, with the Government rape review finding no single factor is to blame.
The CPS is working tirelessly in making improvements to the handling of these sensitive cases through its RASSO 2025 Strategy and the Joint National RASSO Action Plan with the police. This includes targeted work supporting victims in order to increase confidence in reporting. Following the impact of Covid-19 on prosecution volumes, it is encouraging to see increased volumes quarter on quarter – however, it is recognised that there is still work to be done.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the extension to the unduly lenient sentence scheme.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The unduly lenient sentence scheme allows for sentences passed for the most serious criminal offences to be reviewed by the Court of Appeal, if referred by the Law Officers. The extension of the scheme added further serious offences to the list of those which can be referred.
In the course of this year, under the extended scheme, I have successfully referred sentences for offences of controlling and coercive behaviour, distributing indecent images of children and, most recently, stalking involving serious alarm or distress, one in which the sentence of the offender was more than doubled.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what recent sentences she has extended through the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The Court of Appeal has recently increased the sentences upon a reference by the Law Officers in the following cases. In the first, the offender Habte stabbed a lone female who was a stranger to him: his sentence was increased to reflect a finding of dangerousness, to one of five years’ detention with a three year licence extension. In a case of manslaughter, the offender Taiwo’s sentence was increased to seven years’ two months imprisonment, building on another case the Law Officers referred which emphasises the seriousness of “one-punch” attacks, Coyle. Most recently, the sentence of a Manchester man who raped his 15 year old girlfriend when he was 19 was referred to the Court and increased to three years’ imprisonment.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what criminal convictions he has referred to the Court of Appeal as being unduly lenient in the last five years for which figures are available.
Answered by Robert Buckland
Annual data for the cases that have been referred to the Court of Appeal are publicly available for the years 2014-2016 on the gov.uk website at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics?departments%5B%5D=attorney-generals-office.
In 2017, 173 cases were referred to the Court of Appeal as unduly lenient.
In 2018, 140 cases were referred to the Court of Appeal as unduly lenient, although two of those cases are yet to be heard.