Last week the Government published the Crime and Policing Bill. The bill proposes a range of new offences and an expansion of powers to seek to address knife crime, violence against women and girls, cybercrime, child sexual abuse, terrorism and generally rebuild public confidence in the policing and criminal justice system. The bill is over 300 pages so we have just highlighted a few of changes below:
๐ ๐๐ฑ๐ฉ๐๐ง๐ฌ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐จ๐ ๐๐จ๐ซ๐ฉ๐จ๐ซ๐๐ญ๐ ๐ฅ๐ข๐๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ. The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 changed the basis for corporate liability for economic crimes so that a corporation will have criminal liability if a ‘senior manager’ of a corporation acting within the actual or apparent scope of their authority commits a specified offence within the UK. The bill will extend this to apply to all criminal offences.
๐ ๐๐จ๐ง๐๐ข๐ฌ๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐ซ๐๐๐จ๐ซ๐ฆ. The bill proposes amendments to enhance the process by which confiscation orders are made, ensuring they are realistic, proportionate and easier to enforce.
๐ ๐๐จ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐ญ๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐ฅ๐๐ฐ ๐๐ง๐๐จ๐ซ๐๐๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ญ ๐๐ ๐๐ง๐๐ข๐๐ฌ ๐ข๐ง ๐ซ๐๐ฌ๐ฉ๐๐๐ญ ๐จ๐ ๐๐ข๐ฏ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ซ๐๐๐จ๐ฏ๐๐ซ๐ฒ ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐๐๐๐๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ฌ. The bill proposes new cost protections for law enforcement agencies to protect them from the risk of adverse costs in civil recovery proceedings provided they have acted reasonably and honestly.
๐ ๐๐๐ฐ ‘๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ซ๐ฆ๐ฌ’ ๐จ๐๐๐๐ง๐๐. A new offence has been proposed to prohibit the possession and supply of ‘SIM farms’ with no legitimate purpose. SIM farms are special devices that can use multiple SIM cards to send bulk scam texts.
๐ ๐๐๐ฐ ๐๐ฅ๐๐๐ญ๐ซ๐จ๐ง๐ข๐ ๐๐๐ฏ๐ข๐๐๐ฌ ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐๐ ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐ฏ๐๐ก๐ข๐๐ฅ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐๐๐ญ ๐จ๐๐๐๐ง๐๐. A new offence has been proposed to prohibit possession and distribution of electronic devices for use in vehicle offences. Government statistics indicate that currently 40% of vehicle thefts in the England and Wales use these sorts of devices.ย
Click on the following link for more information: Crime and Policing Bill publications – Parliamentary Bills – UK Parliament