A 2021 Legislation Update [2021]

For a long time there was little or nothing by way of new legislation. There seems to have been a flurry of it in the last 8 months. New pieces of legislation receiving Royal Assent albeit not all of it necessarily coming into force upon receiving Royal Assent. This session will alert you to those pieces of legislation which require your attention now (and will, for the remainder of 2021).

It’s not easy keeping abreast of all of this stuff – you are busy practitioners and you simply don’t have the time to keep up-to-date with the various Statutory Instruments bringing legislation into force on a piecemeal basis.

You need to know precisely what is in force and to be able to advise accordingly (or prosecute) at both the investigation and prosecution stage.

The following Acts will be considered:

• The Sentencing Act 2020 (or Code if you Prefer) – Very much a ‘need to know’ about this as 99% of it is in force
• The Offensive Weapons Act 2019 – Statutory Instruments are being produced in relation to this Act
• The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 – You don’t need me to tell you that this is going to be a major piece of legislation for criminal practitioners – it will be of huge relevance at the police station stage and when dealing with matters at Court
• Important amendments to the law concerning those offenders given a sentence of 7 years or more at the Crown Court for Specified Offences
• Important amendments to the release provisions of terrorist offenders
• The Counter-Terrorism and Sentencing Act 2021 – Would you believe that certain Schedules of the Sentencing Code 2020 have already been replaced by Schedules of this Act.