Broadbents Latest News

Prison Categorisation
Every prisoner is given a security category. For female prisoners, there are only two options, closed or open condition. For ...
Read More
Read More

Prison Visits
During the Covid pandemic, there have been significant limits and halts to prison visits. Once we are out of lockdown, ...
Read More
Read More

Sexual Abuse in Schools
Ofsted has announced a review into sexual abuse in schools. The review will consider the processes that schools, and colleges ...
Read More
Read More

Non-Disclosure and Prejudice
The Criminal Cases Review Commission referred several cases to the Court of Appeal, which involved allegations of public order related ...
Read More
Read More

Bite Mark Evidence – Part Two
"Why Bite Mark Evidence Should Never Be used in Criminal Trials" is a report published by the Innocence Project. They ...
Read More
Read More

Bite Mark Evidence – Part One
What is bite mark evidence? A bite mark is a pattern produced by the indentations of the teeth into any ...
Read More
Read More

New Proposals
The government recently announced a range of proposals regarding immigration, but how does this affect criminal law?Priti Patel, the Home ...
Read More
Read More

Good Character as Mitigation
What is good character? As far as the criminal courts are concerned, a person of good character is usually someone ...
Read More
Read More

Deaf Jurors
At the moment, profoundly deaf people rarely sit as jurors. There are strict laws that prevent anyone other than the ...
Read More
Read More

Cutting Crime and Building Safer Communities?
The government has announced that there will be new legislation designed to cut “crime and build safer communities”. The Police, Crime, ...
Read More
Read More

Criminal Cases Review Commission – Improvement Needed?
The Criminal Cases Review Commission began its work on 31 March 1997. It was created by the Criminal Appeal Act ...
Read More
Read More

‘Complex Casework’ – Inside The Crown Prosecution Service
More prosecution casework is carried out locally by prosecutors based in regional hubs. For some cases, the position is entirely different, ...
Read More
Read More

Police Stop & Search – Time to Rethink?
Police forces must explain the disproportionate use of police powers such as stop and search and use of force on ...
Read More
Read More

Court of Appeal Refuses to Correct Early Release Injustice
On 1 April 2020, The Release of Prisoners (Alteration of Relevant Proportion of Sentence) Order 2020 came into force. This statutory ...
Read More
Read More

Drugs & Sentencing – Is Cash Relevant?
In the case of Mahmood [2019] EWCA Crim 1532, the court dealt with the relevance of cash when determining which ...
Read More
Read More

Sentencing And The Issue of ‘Psychological Harm’
A number of the definitive guidelines published by the Sentencing Council direct sentencers to consider whether the victim of an ...
Read More
Read More

Parole Board Hearings – Public Scrutiny
Currently, all parole hearings are held in private – this is set out in legislation in the Parole Board Rules ...
Read More
Read More

BBC in the Dock
The British Broadcasting Corporation ('BBC') found itself in the embarrassing position of being fined £28,000 this week after admitting being ...
Read More
Read More

Interpretation of Ano-Genital Findings
Ano-genital findings, namely signs of injury or other non-natural interference, often form part of child abuse prosecutions. In recent years ...
Read More
Read More

Sentencing for Drugs Offences
New sentencing guidelines for some drugs offences will come in to force on 1 April 2021 and will apply to ...
Read More
Read More