SECOND REPORT
The Home Affairs Committee has agreed
to the following Report:
CRIMINAL JUSTICE BILL
SUMMARY
The Criminal Justice Bill 2002 will implement many
of the proposals outlined in the Government's White Paper, Justice
for All.[1]
The proposals in the Bill will make significant procedural changes
to the conduct of criminal trials, including sweeping changes
to the rules on bad character evidence. They will also make inroads
into the existing right of defendants in the Crown Court to be
tried by a judge and jury and will allow—in limited circumstances—for
a retrial of a person previously acquitted of the same offence
(thus relaxing the 'double jeopardy' rule). In addition, the Bill
proposes to introduce a new sentencing framework, based on the
conclusions and recommendations of the Halliday Report.[2]
There is much in the Bill that we support, including
the provisions to assist witnesses in giving their evidence (Part
8 and Clauses 121 and 124), the transfer of responsibility for
charging to the Crown Prosecution Service (Part 4) and the new
sentencing provisions (Part 12). We are in favour of making justice
swifter and therefore support the principle of improving disclosure
by all parties to narrow the issues before trial (which
is reflected in Part 5). We also welcome the proposal to allow
defendants in the Crown Court to 'opt out' of jury trial and we
accept the need for dispensing—in some cases—with
a jury in a complex financial case or where there is a risk of
jury tampering (Part 7). We support the proposed relaxation of
the double jeopardy rule, as recommended by our predecessors in
the last Parliament (Part 10). Finally, we welcome the Government's
adoption of the Law Commission's recommendations and conclusions
on the reform of the rule against hearsay evidence (Part 11, Chp
2).
However, we have serious concerns about some of the
provisions, which we believe will shift the balance too far towards
the state. In particular—
- we have some difficulty with the proposed reform
of the law on bad character evidence, which will allow greater
admission at trial of a defendant's previous convictions (Part
11, Chp 1) and therefore recommend that Clauses 84 to 92—which
relate to the bad character of defendants—be deleted from
the Bill
- we express concern over the proposed extension
of the time limit for detention before charge to 'non-serious'
arrestable offences from 24 hours to 36 hours (Clause 5)
- we have some reservations about the proposed
procedure for establishing and revising the PACE Codes of Practice
(Clause 7)
- while we accept the need conditional bail before
charge, we recommend that it is made subject to a time limit of
four weeks (Schedule 2)
- we are concerned at the proposal to increase
magistrates' sentencing powers to 12 months, particularly if implemented
before the Custody Plus scheme is rolled out (Clauses 137-138)
In the final part of this report, we examine a number
of possible additions to the Bill, including a ban on payments
to witnesses in active criminal proceedings and extension of anonymity
to those accused of sexual offences.
1 Home Secretary, Lord Chancellor, Attorney-General,
Justice for All (Cm 5563, July 2002). Back
2
Home Office, Making Punishment Work: Report of a Review of
the Sentencing Framework for England and Wales (July 2001).
The review was chaired by John Halliday. Back
|
