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Posted by edelegal | 15 March 2019| Blog

The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 confers a power to make regulations if an ‘emergency’ has occurred or is about to occur. In other words, a power to declare a state of emergency and make regulations to deal with it.   The reason that this is currently interesting is that the definition of emergency within the...

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Posted by edelegal | 12 March 2019| Blog

HMRC is reported to be investigating alleged violations of a new criminal offence, part of the crackdown on money laundering, for the first time.   A freedom of information request made by law firm Greenberg Taurig revealed there are five current criminal investigations.   The Criminal Finances Act 2017 introduced the new offence of failing...

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Posted by edelegal | 06 March 2019| Blog

Last week the Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson suggested a 10-year time limit ( a Statute of Limitations) on the prosecution of soldiers accused of murder during military engagement. This proposal was in response to reports that British soldiers may face prosecution over deaths during the Northern Ireland troubles in the 1970s and 80s.   So,...

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Posted by edelegal | 04 March 2019| Blog

The Home Secretary will this week hold an urgent meeting with police chiefs to discuss the recent rise in knife crime. This follows another week of senseless killings and the publication of figures that show the number of people aged 16 and under being stabbed rose by 93% between 2016 and 2018.   Channel 4...

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Posted by edelegal | 27 February 2019| Blog

In straitened financial circumstances, it can be tempting to consider purchasing counterfeit money. While the price of such ‘currency’ fluctuates widely, it is often as low as 25% of the face value, making it a tempting proposition.   State currency producers spend millions each year on devising and improving security safeguards, and that counterfeit currency...

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Posted by edelegal | 21 February 2019| Blog

The government has announced a national rollout of GPS electronic tagging which will mean 24/7 location monitoring of those wearing the tag.   The tag is now available in three Probation areas; the North West, Midlands and North East. Location monitoring will go live in the South East, South West and Wales by April 2019....

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Posted by edelegal | 19 February 2019| Blog

The Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019 has completed its parliamentary journey and will, in the main, come in to effect over the next few months.   The Home Secretary Sajid Javid claims that the Act:   ‘…ensures sentencing for certain terrorism offences can properly reflect the severity of the crimes, as well as preventing...

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Posted by edelegal | 13 February 2019| Blog

The government has published proposals to punish individuals who mishandle pension scheme management. Two new offences are proposed.   The first will target individuals who wilfully or recklessly mishandle pension schemes, endangering workers’ pensions, by such things as chronic mismanagement of a business; or allowing huge unsustainable deficits to build up; or taking huge investment...

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Posted by edelegal | 11 February 2019| Blog

The government has announced that drug detection scanners are being introduced at ten of the “most challenging” prisons. The technology will be used to detect drugs on clothes, paper and mail. It will be able to detect otherwise invisible traces of substances that have been soaked into clothes or letters in an attempt to bypass...

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Posted by edelegal | 07 February 2019| Blog

The Parole Board is an independent body that carries out risk assessments on prisoners serving certain sentences to determine whether they can be safely released into the community. When a person is considered to be fit for release it means that their risk has been reduced to a level where it is low enough to...

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