Summary and Background Part 13- Miscellaneous
89.Section 306 amends Schedule 8 to the Terrorism Act 2000.
90.Section 307 provides for the maximum prison sentences for offences arising from EC Regulations on the protection of wild fauna and flora to be increased from two years to five years.
91.Section 308 extends the cases in which a defendant in the magistrates’ court can plead guilty and be dealt with in his absence.
92.Sections 309 to 312 extend the scope of statutory preparatory hearings and sections 313 to 319 make changes to criminal appeal procedures.
93.Section 320 adds the common law offence of "outraging public decency" to the list of offences at Schedule 1 of the Magistrates' Courts Act 1980. This will have the effect of making it triable summarily, as well as on indictment. At the present time, this offence is triable on indictment only.
94.The Act amends the principal statute governing jury service, the Juries Act 1974, to abolish (except in the case of mentally disordered persons) the categories of ineligibility for, and excusal “as of right” from jury service, currently set out in that Act. This means that certain groups who currently must not, or need not, do jury service, will, when these provisions are brought into force, be required to do so unless they can show good reason not to. The Act also makes amendments to the category of those disqualified from jury service to reflect developments in sentencing legislation, including those made by the Act itself.
95.Sections 322 and 323 provide for an Individual Support Order, aimed at preventing further anti-social behaviour, to be available for use where an anti-social behaviour order has already been granted against a person under 18. The Individual Support Order may require the young person to undertake activities to tackle the underlying causes of their anti-social behaviour.
96.Section 324 and Schedule 34 amend the Parenting Order provisions in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and the Referral Order provisions in the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 to enable courts to make a Parenting Order when a Referral Order is being made. In such cases the court must first obtain a report indicating requirements proposed for the Order, the reasons for these, and, where the offender is aged under 16 years, information about the family circumstances. If a Parenting Order is not made at the same time as a Referral Order, the provision will also allow Youth Offending Panels to refer parents to the court where a parent has failed to attend panel meetings. The measure will allow Parenting Orders to be issued to parents of first time offenders who plead guilty.
97.Sections 325 to 327 build upon the provisions in the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 that place a requirement upon the responsible authority to establish arrangements for the management of certain high-risk offenders in the community. The responsible authority was defined as the local probation board and the chief officer of police and the Act extends this definition to include the Minister of State exercising functions in relation to prisons. The Act also places a new duty upon certain named bodies (e.g. local housing authorities and health authorities) to co-operate with the responsible authority as necessary to enable it to undertake its statutory duties effectively. The Act requires the responsible authority to regularly review its effectiveness in undertaking its duties and to recruit two lay advisers to oversee this task.
98.Section 328 and Schedule 35 amend Part 5 of the Police Act 1997 which sets out the statutory framework under which the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) provides criminal record disclosures for employment vetting purposes. The changes give effect to a number of the recommendations of the Independent Review Team appointed in September 2002 to take a fundamental look at the operations of the CRB. The amendments to the 1997 Act are designed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the CRB so that it can provide greater protection for children and vulnerable adults whilst ensuring that the disclosure process does not act as a bar to speedy recruitment.
99.Section 329 makes new provision about cases where a person who has been convicted of an imprisonable criminal offence takes civil action for damages for trespass to the person against the victim of the offence or against a third party who has intervened, for example to protect the victim or to protect or recover property. It requires that, where a claimant convicted of an imprisonable offence wishes to sue someone for damages for a trespass to the person which is committed on the same occasion as the offence, he must first obtain the permission of the court. Permission may only be given if there is evidence that certain conditions relating to the defendant's perceptions and reasons for doing the act which amounted to trespass to the claimant's person are not met, or that in all the circumstances the defendant's act was grossly disproportionate. The defendant will not be liable at the trial if he can prove that the relevant conditions are met and that in all the circumstances the action was not grossly disproportionate.