Criminal Justice
Murder through the ages and across the world
The homicide rate for England and Wales has fallen sharply since 2002/3, and we are one of the safest countries in the world.
1st August 2015
The homicide rate for England and Wales has fallen sharply since 2002/3, and we are one of the safest countries in the world.
Police use of tasers We can be rightly proud of the very low number of police
The 2015 statistics on Alcohol in England report a continuing reduction in our use and abuse of alcohol as a nation. However, it also makes very clear the unprecedented pressure that our over-use is putting on the health service with more and more hospital admissions linked to alcohol use and abuse.
It is clear that this group of drugs will be a priority for the EMCDDA to monitor over the coming years and that drug treatment agencies probably need to develop their understanding of legal highs and make sure they advertise that there is help available for those developing problems with their use.
It will be interesting to see whether the appointment of Michael Gove as Justice Secretary will have any impact on this parlous state of affairs. Clearly, the problems are becoming so entrenched that it will be difficult for much positive change to take place if, as is widely feared, the MoJ takes another big hit in the current spending review whose results will be announced in November 2015.
The NAO makes a very strong recommendation not only that all government payment by results schemes should be evaluated but that these evaluations should be shared across government in order to develop a more robust evidence base for PbR; indicating whether and how this commissioning model should be utilised.
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The latest figures from the Crime Survey for England and Wales showed that there were an estimated 6.8 million incidents of crime in the year ending March 2015. This is a 7% decrease compared with the previous year’s survey, and the lowest estimate since the CSEW began in 1981.
This is a guest blog by Bob Neill MP, Chair of the Justice Select Committee (you
Wastewater analysis has moved from being an experimental technique to being a new method in the epidemiological toolkit. Its rapid ability to detect new trends can help target public health programmes and policy initiatives at specific groups of people and the different drugs they are using.
Nevertheless, he is forthright in saying that he shares the conclusion of the Justice Committee in attributing the main cause of this deterioration in the quality of our prisons to the financial cuts and, particularly the large reduction in the numbers of prison staff.
The NAO cautions that in designing PbR schemes, commissioners need to get the balance between pure PbR and non PbR payments right. Where a scheme is financed by a Social Impact Bond, it may be possible – and indeed appropriate – to stipulate that 100% income is dependent on achieving the specified outcomes.
