UK Justice Policy Review: Volume 6

The sixth in an annual series by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, supported by The Hadley Trust, assessing year-on-year developments in criminal justice across the UK.

Combining analysis of the main developments with key data on issues such as spending, staffing and the numbers going through the criminal justice system, UK Justice Policy Review (UKJPR) offers an accessible overview of UK-wide developments.

The 13 month period covered by this edition of UKJPR is bookended by two notable political events. At one end is the May 2015 General Election, which returned the first majority Conservative UK government for nearly two decades. At the other is the June 2016 referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union, which inaugurated a new period of politics and policymaking, distinctive in many ways from that which preceded it.

This edition of UKJPR is concerned with assessing and explaining criminal justice developments across the UK’s four nations and regions – England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland – between these two events.

Developments between the Brexit Referendum and the 2017 General Election are covered in UKJPR 7, due out in early 2018.

Benefiting from an entirely rethought format and design, this edition of UKJPR covers developments across the UK, including:

• The key speeches by the Prime Minister; Home Secretary and Justice Secretary for England and Wales; the Scottish Justice Secretary and the Northern Ireland Justice Minister.
• The main legislation by the UK parliament, the Scottish Parliament and the Northern Ireland Assembly.
• Policing, including: controversy over police spying; historic abuse inquiries; police funding; Police and Crime Commissioners and investigating Northern Ireland's troubled past.
• Courts and legal aid, including: court closures legal aid disputes and measures to codify rights and protections for victims of crime.
• Prisons, including: prison population levels, prison building programmes and the growing crisis of prisoner safety.
• Probation, including: controversy over privatised probation in England and Wales and legislation to reorganise probation delivery in Scotland.