Legislation
Crime Reduction Elements of the Queen's Speech 2006
The Queen's Speech outlines the Government's programme for the forthcoming parliamentary year. The 2006 Queen's Speech included plans for several bills related to crime reduction, criminal justice, and anti-social behaviour. We've outlined them for you here in a brief and scannable summary.
Criminal Justice Bill
'My Government will put victims at the heart of the criminal justice system, support the police and all those responsible for the public's safety,...A bill will be brought forward for the next stage of reform of the criminal justice system, giving the police and probation services new powers to protect the public from violent offenders and anti-social behaviour.'
The Criminal Justice Bill will introduce measures to:
- toughen up trial processes when an offender fails to appear without good reason
- create new powers to tackle anti-social and violent behaviour and a new offence to deal with violent pornography
- introduce a generic community sentence for young offenders
- make sentencing processes clearer and address imbalances in the process for overturning convictions and releasing offenders
- bring compensation for those wrongly convicted into line with that paid to victims of crime. This Bill would cover primarily England and Wales
Offender Management Bill
'Legislation will be introduced to improve the way that offenders are managed and supervised.'
The Offender Management Bill will introduce measures to:
- enable the Secretary of State to commission services from the best available provider, whether in the public, private or voluntary sector
- improve offender management by strengthening the offences of bringing articles into prison
- make various technical amendments to improve delivery in the youth justice sector
Serious and Organised Crime Bill
'Measures will be brought forward to give law enforcement agencies new powers to combat serious and organised crime.'
The Serious and Organised Crime Bill will introduce measures to:
- establish a new Serious Crime Prevention Order to prevent organised crime by individuals, or organisations, by imposing restrictions on them
- introduce new offences of encouraging or assisting a criminal act with intent, or encouraging or assisting a criminal act believing that an offence may be committed
- strengthen the recovery of criminal assets by extending powers of investigation and seizure to all accredited financial investigators
Find out more
You can read more about the Queen's Speech and the other measures announced in the Queen's Speech area of the Number 10 website.
Last update: Thursday, November 16, 2006