Police, Crime, Sentencing And Courts Act 2022

Overview of the Act

1. In December 2019, the Government was elected with manifesto commitments to make the country safer by empowering the police and courts to take more effective action against crime and delivering a fair justice system. This included specific commitments to: protect and empower the police by enshrining "the Police Covenant into law"; "pass the Police Protection Bill"; and introduce "a new court order to target known knife carriers, making it easier for officers to stop and search those convicted of knife crime". On courts and sentencing, it included commitments to: empower the courts to tackle crime; ensure a fair justice system by introducing "tougher sentencing for the worst offenders and [ending] automatic halfway release from prison for serious crimes"; toughen "community sentences, for example by tightening curfews and making those convicted do more hours of community payback"; and "turn people away from crime and end the cycle of reoffending". This Act contains a number of measures to support the delivery of those commitments.
2. The purpose of the Act is to:
   • protect the police and other emergency workers and enhance the wellbeing of police officers and staff;
   • protect the public by giving the police the tools needed to tackle crime and disorder, and by addressing the root causes of serious violent crime using multi-agency approaches to prevention;
   • ensure that the most serious violent and sexual offenders spend time in prison that matches the severity of their crimes, protects victims and gives the public confidence;
   • tackle repeat and prolific offenders through robust community sentences which punish and also address offenders’ needs; and
   • modernise the delivery of criminal justice by overhauling existing court processes to provide better services for all court users.
3. The Act is in 14 parts.
4. Part 1 contains measures to better protect the police and other emergency workers. In particular, it: places a duty on the Secretary of State to publish an annual report on progress against the delivery of the Police Covenant; doubles the maximum penalty for assault on emergency workers; requires a life sentence for manslaughter of emergency workers; enables special constables to join the Police Federation of England and Wales; and amends the offences relating to dangerous and careless driving so that the enhanced skills and training of police officers and police driving instructors can be taken into account in any prosecution for such an offence arising from their conduct.
5. Part 2 contains measures to prevent, investigate and prosecute crime. Chapter 1 places a duty on specified authorities (including local and health authorities and chief officers of police) to collaborate with each other to prevent and reduce serious violence. Chapter 2 places a duty on relevant authorities to undertake offensive weapons homicide reviews. Chapter 3 establishes a statutory framework for the extraction of information from electronic devices for the purposes of the prevention, detection, investigation or prosecution of crime, safeguarding purposes and the purposes of investigating deaths. Chapter 4 reforms the pre-charge bail system; extends the offence of arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sex offence to cover a wider range of preparatory conduct in respect of sex offences committed against children under 13; extends positions of trust provisions to capture those that lead activities in sporting and religious settings; creates the offence of voyeurism: breastfeeding; extends the time limit for prosecution of common assault or battery in domestic abuse cases; strengthens the courts sentencing powers in relation to criminal damage to memorials; makes amendments to the Crime (Overseas Production Orders) Act 2019; makes further provision for the taking of photographs, fingerprints and non-intimate samples from persons convicted of an offence; confers powers on the police to obtain information about the location of human remains where there is no on-going criminal investigation; makes provision for a code of practice relating to the police recording of non-crime hate incidents; broadens the circumstances in which the police can investigate and bring charges for hare coursing related activity and increases the powers of the courts for dealing with this activity upon conviction; makes provision for conferring policing powers on food crime officers; and places a duty on the Secretary of State to respond to the Law Commission report on hate crime laws.
6. Part 3 strengthens police powers to tackle non-violent protests. This includes provisions to: extend the powers to place conditions on public processions and assemblies; amend the offence relating to the breaching of conditions placed on a public procession or assembly; replace the common law offence of public nuisance with a new statutory offence; amend the legal framework designed to prevent disruptive activities in the vicinity of the Palace of Westminster to ensure vehicular access to Parliament; and increase the maximum penalty for the offence of wilfully obstructing a highway.
7. Part 4 provides for a new offence to tackle unauthorised encampments and amends existing powers to remove trespassers on land under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.
8. Part 5 contains provisions relating to road traffic. These include measures to: increase the maximum penalty and the minimum periods of disqualification from driving for the offences of causing death by dangerous driving and causing death by careless driving when under the influence of drink or drugs; create a new offence of causing serious injury by careless or inconsiderate driving; place on a statutory footing provision for charging fees for courses offered as an alternative to prosecution for low-level driving offences; clarify powers to charge fees for the removal of abandoned vehicles; and remove the obligation on drivers to surrender their driving licence before they can accept a fixed penalty notice or a conditional offer, or before they attend a court hearing for a road traffic offence.
9. Part 6 contains provisions creating two tiers of cautions, replacing the existing six disposals. There will be a lower-tier disposal (community caution) and an upper-tier disposal (diversionary caution).
10. Part 7 contains provisions relating to sentencing and release giving effect to proposals in the Government’s white paper - ‘A Smarter Approach to Sentencing’ – published in September 2019. Chapter 1 includes measures to increase the minimum sentences for particular offences, including making a Whole Life Order the starting point for those convicted of child murder and raising the starting points for those sentenced for committing murder whilst under 18. This Chapter also contains provisions that: increase the penalty for child cruelty; relate to release of offenders on licence; extend the driver disqualification period to reflect minimum periods in custody; and ensure that polygraph conditions can be applied to eligible service offenders and repatriated prisoners. Chapter 2 makes changes to community sentences including increasing the maximum curfew requirements and the piloting of specific amendments to community and suspended sentence orders. Chapter 3 provides for a statutory aggravating factor to be applied by the courts in cases of assault where the offence is committed against those providing a public service.
11. Part 8 contains provisions relating to youth justice. The Sentencing White Paper also set out a number of reforms to the youth justice remand, sentencing and release framework. These provisions include measures to: strengthen the tests to be applied by the courts to remand children to custody; make the Detention and Training Order more flexible; make changes to Youth Rehabilitation Orders; and abolish the Reparation Order.
12. Part 9 contains provisions relating to establishing charitable status for the providers of Secure 16 to 19 Academies and regulating the use of temporary release of children in Secure Children’s Homes and Secure 16-19 Academies.
13. Part 10 makes further provision for the management of offenders. Chapter 1 provides for Serious Violence Reduction Orders, which confer on the police new targeted stop and search powers to tackle knife crime offenders. Chapter 2 makes provision for the courts to adjourn proceedings in relation to Knife Crime Prevention Orders. Chapter 3 relates to the management of sex offenders and, in particular, amends the framework in the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and Sentencing Code in respect of Sexual Harm Prevention Orders and Sexual Risk Orders. Chapter 4 relates to the management of terrorist and terrorist risk offenders who have been released on licence and includes new powers for the police to: search the premises of an offender for purposes connected with protecting the public from a risk of terrorism; stop and search a terrorist offender where their licence conditions require them to submit to such a search; and arrest a terrorist offender in urgent cases pending a decision by the probation service to recall them into custody for breach of licence. Chapter 5 makes further provision in respect of Football Banning Orders.
14. Part 11 contains provisions enabling some custodial sentences of over four years to become spent after a certain period of time.
15. Part 12 extends the schemes whereby persons with convictions or cautions for certain now-repealed offences which criminalised homosexual activity can have those convictions or cautions "disregarded" and receive a pardon.
16. Part 13 makes several changes to the procedures in courts and tribunals, specifically in relation to the use of sign language interpreters for deaf jurors, the prohibition on authorised transmission and recording of proceedings, the regulation of remote observations of proceedings, and the use of live links in criminal proceedings.
17. Part 14 contains miscellaneous and general provisions, including in relation to extent and commencement.