Publication of Government response to Covid-19 and the Criminal Law report and updated response on Legal Aid

8 September 2022

The Justice Committee has published the Government response to its report, Covid-19 and the Criminal Law, published nearly 12 months ago.

In the response, the Government accepted that recommendation that the Ministry of Justice should be consulted by other departments as a matter of course when considering new criminal offences or penalties, or making amendments to existing one.

Ministers however rejected the Committee’s call for the UK Health Security Agency to lead a review of the role of the criminal justice system in enforcing Covid restrictions. They instead argued that individual government departments are best placed to “ensure that the right expertise in areas such as the criminal law is fed into the policy process”.

The Committee’s recommendation that the Government move away from an over-reliance on issuing fixed penalty notices (FPNs) were also rejected, with the Government arguing that they provided an effective way of encouraging safer behaviours without the need for prosecutions.

The Committee has also published an updated Government response to the Committee’s report on the future of legal aid. The Justice Committee published its report on 27 July 2021. The Government’s initial response was published on 16 November 2021. At that time, the Criminal Legal Aid Independent Review and the Means Test Review were both underway and had not yet been published. Following the publication of both reviews, an updated Government Response was received on 15 August 2022 and has been published today.

Further information

Image: Pixabay