Press

A Conservative MP has clashed with campaigners over the benefits of the criminal courts charge during an exchange in parliament.

Charging defendants of little means court fees – even if they put their hands up and plead guilty – will bring US-style plea bargaining to English justice, a legal affairs think tank has said.

Submitting written evidence to a justice select committee inquiry, the Centre for Justice Innovation said it was ‘troubled’ the charge was making defendants change their pleas ‘in order to avoid running the risk of incurring excessive penalties’.

The imposition of mandatory, punitive fines in English and Welsh criminal courts has undermined respect for the law and introduced US-style plea bargaining that results in false convictions, an influential legal thinktank has warned.

Top professor says recent cases suggest charge is making innocent people plead guilty to avoid hefty fines. The divisive criminal courts charge is ‘unfair’ and has created a ‘legitimacy deficit’ that threatens the right to a fair trial, a top academic has warned.

A government researcher and leading criminologist has spoken out against the criminal courts charge, branding it a “very unfair and unpleasant” piece of legislation that breaches human rights law.

A guide recently published by the Centre for Justice Innovation argues that diverting young offenders away from the court system not only reduces immediate costs of prosecution but, by placing those who need assistance into early contact with health, mental health and social services, it produces better outcomes than formal processing. It quotes an Audit Commission 2009 estimate that more than £100m is saved in lifetime costs if one in 10 young offenders can be diverted into effective support.

The Valuing Youth Diversion toolkit, created by the Centre for Justice Innovation, uses basic information about diversion schemes to estimate potential “cost avoidance estimates”, primarily for police and the court system.

How can innovation flourish in a sector where risk management is paramount? Deputy director of the Centre for Justice Innovation Anton Shelupanov is determined to find the answer and shake things up in the criminal justice sector.

A unique Plymouth charity praised by a London-based justice innovation group for its work reducing re-offending says it needs proper funding to continue its vital work.