New report calls for reform of joint enterprise laws

The report, which has been featured in The Guardian, highlights findings that joint enterprise convictions in England and Wales have risen significantly over the past four decades. It also reports that prosecutions increasingly rely on what the authors describe as a “job lot” approach.

Campaign group JENGbA welcomed the report, saying it “validates all we have been saying in 16 years of campaigning,” highlighting concerns about sentencing severity, the young age of defendants, and the impact on families.

Reflecting on the report’s findings and the prospects for reform, Helen Mills, Director of Programmes at the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies and report co-author, said:

There are clear limits to what can be achieved through legal challenges and individual appeals alone. With the Law Commission reviewing homicide laws and the government committed to reforming a broken justice system, there is a window to move beyond the current logjam. In place of a job lot approach, we need nuance, ensuring people are held to account for what they actually did.

Published in April 2026, Joint Enterprise: A view over time calls for urgent reform of joint enterprise laws, arguing that individuals should only be held accountable for their own actions, not the conduct of others.

The report warns that current prosecution practice has drifted away from a clear distinction between principal offenders and secondary parties. It argues this has led to a ‘job lot’ approach to homicide cases, where individuals with limited involvement are convicted of the most serious offences committed by others.

It also highlights the disproportionate impact on young people, alongside longer custodial sentences in multi-defendant homicide cases.

Three priorities for reform

The report sets out three priorities:

• Narrow the scope of the law through a clearer test for secondary liability
• Introduce proportionate sentencing with a separate framework for secondary parties
• Strengthen transparency in prosecution decisions, including clearer accounts of individual conduct and intent

Shift in prosecutorial practice

Drawing on long-term data, the report highlights a marked shift in the use of joint enterprise in homicide prosecutions.
It finds that cases involving multiple suspects have moved from being described as “exceptional” in the 1960s to a systemic feature of the criminal justice system today.

The number of homicide cases involving three or more defendants has tripled since 1984, rising from 18 cases to 54 in 2024, now accounting for nearly ten per cent of all homicide prosecutions.

The report highlights sentencing severity and the age profile of those affected:

• 42 per cent of those convicted of manslaughter in multi-defendant cases where they were not the main suspect received sentences of over ten years in 2022 (7 per cent in 2012, excluding life sentences)
• Around 40 per cent of defendants in homicide cases involving four or more people are aged 18–24
• Since 2010, just over half of children under 16 convicted of murder were involved in multi-defendant cases where they were not the principal offender

The report also highlights persistent racial disparities, with Black defendants three times more likely than White defendants to be convicted in group cases involving four or more defendants.

Find out more

• Joint Enterprise: A view over time – Centre for Crime and Justice Studies publication page
• The Guardian coverage of the report
• Joint Enterprise panel event

Photo by Mahosadha Ong on Unsplash