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Today the Ministry of Justice announced two new statutory aggravating factors for murder sentencing, along with a review of homicide law and sentencing. The Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales, Nicole Jacobs says, “I am pleased that strangulation and killing at the end of a relationship will become statutory aggravating factors for murder sentencing,

“I am deeply concerned to hear that 37 prisoners – who were serving sentences for breaching restraining orders – were released in error under the SDS40 early prison release scheme. “Anyone who breaches a restraining order is likely to be a high risk individual who may be fixated on their victim, undeterred by legal restrictions

Today, an early prison release scheme comes into effect that will see some offenders released after serving 40% of their sentence. The ‘SDS40’ scheme is a temporary measure, designed to ease the prison overcrowding crisis. But despite some exemptions for domestic abuse related crimes, the scheme doesn’t go far enough to protect victims from their

In response to the ongoing prison overcrowding crisis, magistrates were yesterday requested to temporarily delay the imprisonment of some individuals. This move is intended to alleviate pressure ahead of the upcoming ‘SDS40’ early release program which aims to free up prison spaces. The SDS40 scheme allows some prisoners to be released after serving 40% of

Today the new Government has announced plans to temporarily reduce the point at which prisoners are automatically released from 50% to 40% of their sentence, in response to the overcrowding crisis. This will exclude anyone convicted for a sexual offence, stalking, controlling and coercive behaviour, non-fatal strangulation, breaches of restraining or non-molestation orders, or who