Australian-style ‘community courts’, a 50% increase in the number of Crown prosecutors, a more racially diverse judiciary and an extension of human rights would be on the agenda of a future Labour government, the shadow justice secretary has revealed. In a major speech at London’s Middle Temple, Steve Reed MP also hinted at reviving the idea of a levy on City law firms.
Reed’s speech, which included a reference to Tony Blair’s ‘tough on crime’ statement as well as to Magna Carta and the 1689 Bill of Rights, will be interpreted as an attempt to seize the law and order agenda. It included a raft of proposals to ‘prevent crime, punish criminals and protect the public’.
Focusing on anti-social behaviour, he cited Australia’s community courts, involving ‘community leaders, social workers, school teachers and others’ as a way to tackle low-level offending. ‘They do this by harnessing the power of the community, of leaders whose authority a young offender respects, and they steer them away from offending with a persuasive mixture of sanctions and support.’
He pledged to ‘work with the legal and children’s professions to explore how we could introduce community courts as a pre-charge diversion here in the UK’.
In a specific spending commitment, Reed pledged to increase by one half the number of staff employed by the government to serve as Crown prosecutors. ‘We will do that by allowing associate prosecutors, with proper training, to use their skills and qualifications to get the wheels of justice turning.’