|
December 2010
The Ministry of Justice published an evaluation of the Virtual
Courts trial which suggests that they could be more expensive
than traditional court hearings.
The Ministry of Justice published a Green Paper Breaking the Cycle, on
the punishment, rehabilitation and sentencing of offenders. NAAN
will be responding to the consultation in the new year.
November 2010
The Prison Reform Trust has published a major report which
shows that children with learning disabilities and other
impairments are more likely to go to prison than other young people
because the youth justice system is failing to recognise their
needs. The report Seen and Heard: supporting
vulnerable children in the youth justice system is based on a
major survey of youth offending team (YOT) staff. The
report's author Jenny Talbot has recently joined the NAAN
Board.
The Government has published a Consultation
on proposals to make further changes to the legal aid system. Most
of the proposals affect civil rather than criminal legal aid, and
there will be no direct effect on the position of detainees in
police custody. However in the future, the changes in funding
arrangements may result in more criminal defence firms giving up
legal aid work and this may have an indirect effect on the quality
of legal services available for detainees.
October 2010
The Home Secretary announced on 22 October the details of the
Review of the Vetting and Barring Scheme. These can be found on the
ISA website.
The Sentencing Council, which was established in April 2010, has
just published its first consultation on a draft Assault Guideline.
Full details can be found on this link:
Sentencing
Council Consultation
NAAN's response
to the consultation can be downloaded here.
The Government has announced the abolition of the Youth Justice
Board. Full details have not yet been given, but many of the YJB's
functions are expected to be transferred to the Ministry of
Justice.
Following the AGM, Gill Slocombe was appointed as the new NAAN
Chair.
June 2010
On 15 June the Government
announced that the implementation of the Vetting and Barring Scheme
would be halted to allow for a full review of the Scheme. However,
the new safeguarding regulations introduced in October 2009 will
continue to apply. See the ISA
website for further
details.
ACPO, the Department of Health
and the NPIA have just produced Guidance on responding to people with mental ill
health or learning disabilities.
April 2010
NAAN receives funding from the
Department of Health for the first time, enabling the Development
Officer post to become full-time.
March 2010
The Home Office has published the Summary of Responses to
the PACE Review.
A Briefing Paper on this has been sent to NAAN members and can
be downloaded from the member-only section of the website.
The Government has also recently published updated
guidance and supporting materials on Information Sharing,
applicable to both children and vulnerable adults. These can be
downloaded from the Every Child Matters
website.
The ISA has now published full Guidance
on the Vetting and Barring Scheme
February
2010
The Goverment has recently
published Healthy Children, Safer
Communities, a cross
departmental strategy to improve the health and well-being of
children and young people at risk of offending and
re-offending.
A Briefing Paper on this has
been sent to NAAN members.
December 2009
Following much public discussion, the Government published
revisions to the Vetting and Barring Scheme. This will reduce the
number of people who will need to register.
See the ISA website for
further details.
November 2009
The Goverment published: Improving Health,Supporting
Justice:The National Delivery Plan of the Health and Criminal
Justice Programme Board
This plan, developed in response to the Bradley Report, aims to
improve the health and well being of offenders, in particular those
with mental health problems and learning disabilities.NAAN is in
discussion with both the Home Office and the Department of Health
about the implications for the delivery of appropriate adult
services.
A Briefing Paper on this has been sent to NAAN members.
September 2009
PACE update
The Home Office was due to publish a summary of responses to the
PACE Review Consultation by the end of April, but this has
been postponed several times. The latest deadline of the end
of August has now passed and the publication of responses is now
due by the end of the autumn. No date is given for the publication
of the Government's response to the Consultation, and it seems
increasingly unlikely that we will see anything substantive before
a General Election.
The PACE Review consultation paper was published in August 2008.
NAAN sent its response to the Home Office in November November. To
download a copy of NAAN's response and to see full details of the
Review, see the PACE section at the bottom of the main News page.
July 2009
Mark Perks started work as NAAN's Development Officer.
June 2009
NAAN appointed Mark Perks as the new Peripatetic
Development Officer. Mark will be supporting members in a
variety of ways, concentrating on standards, training and scheme
development.
Grev Wallington is the new NAAN Chair.
May 2009
The Bradley Report
Lord Bradley's Review of people with mental health problems or
learning disabilities in the criminal justice system was published
on 30 April. The Executive Summary can be
downloaded here.
Keeping the Right People on the DNA Database
Following the European Court of Human Right's decision in
December 2008, the Home Office issued a consultation on this issue
Further details can be found on the Home
Office website.
March 2009
A delay to the full
implementation of the ISA run Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS)
was announced on 19 March. The Ministerial
Statement can be downloaded
here. Further details of the Scheme can be found by following the
ISA link on the Links page of the website.
December 2008
Lis Pritchard was interviewed about NAAN and the PACE Review for
the December edition of the Children's Legal Centre's journal
ChildRIGHT. The interview has been made
available by the Children's Legal Centre and can be downloaded
here.
November 2008
The Prison Reform Trust published its final report from the No
One Knows project. Prisoners' Voices
highlights the lack of support and the poor treatment that
prisoners with learning disabilities or difficulties receive
throughout the criminal justice system. This final report
builds on earlier reports such as the No One Knows report on police
responses to suspects with learning difficulties which was
discussed at the NAAN Conference earlier this year.
October 2008
The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King's College
London has published a highly critical report on the introduction
of the Criminal Defence Service (CDS) Direct and the Defence
Solicitor Call Centre (DSCC). The report can be downloaded
here: CDS
Direct: Flying in the face of the evidence
January 2008
The Commission on the Future of Volunteering published its
report Manifesto for
Change on 28 January 2008.
2006
Centrex produced Guidance on the Safer Detention and Handling
of Persons in Police Custody |
