The Weekly Round-up: Sentencing Hearings, the Letby Inquiry, and Equal Pay Legislation

8 September 2023 by Grace Storrie

In the news 

This week, the Ministry of Justice has proposed new laws which would allow judges to force defendants to attend sentencing hearings. Judges can already issue an order requiring a defendant to attend court, and failing to comply can result in a prosecution under the Contempt of Court Act. The Ministry of Justice says, however, that these powers are rarely used by judges. The proposed reforms will allow custody officers to use “reasonable force” to make defendants appear in court. The reforms would also allow judges to extend a defendant’s sentence by two years if they refuse to comply. The new measures were prompted by a number of defendants convicted of murder refusing to attend sentencing hearings, including Lucy Letby who was given a life sentence for the murder of 7 babies and attempted murder of 6 others. While the victims’ families have welcomed the reforms, others have expressed concern that the policy will overburden the court system and place prison staff in unnecessarily dangerous situations. 

The inquiry into the murders committed by Lucy Letby at the Countess of Chester Hospital Trust has been upgraded to a statutory inquiry. The purpose of the inquiry is to investigate the ‘wider circumstances’ around what happened at the trust, including the handling of concerns and actions taken by regulators and the NHS. The Letby case has exposed disquiet about how doctor’s concerns about patient safety are handled by the NHS. The new statutory inquiry will have significant powers, including being about to compel witnesses to attend and give evidence under oath. The hearings and findings of the inquiry will also be made available to the public. 

Meanwhile, the Government announced this week it would introduce legislation to retain a crucial piece of EU law which protected equal pay. The law, called the ‘single source test’, requires that men and women should receive equal pay for the same work done, even if the work is done for different employers, provided the work is attributable to the same source. The provision has been especially important in cases where there has been differential pay between men and women working at different locations or outsourced companies, despite receiving payment from the same ultimate employer. The EU law closed a clear gap in UK employment legislation but was due to be removed by January 2024 under the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 until this week, when the Government said it will enshrine the equal pay protection in secondary legislation before the end of the year. 

In other news 

Earlier this week, Joe Biggs – the leader of the Proud Boys – has been sentenced to 17 years in prison in connection with his activities during the US Capitol riots in January 2021. Biggs was convicted in May of various charges, including seditious conspiracy and interference with law enforcement during civil disorder. There have been over 1,000 people arrested on charges related to the Capitol riots and 110 convictions. Another Proud Boys member, Enrique Tarrio, was recently sentenced to 22 years in prison for his part in orchestrating the attack; the longest sentence handed down in relation to the riots. 

A council report published this week suggests that 30 unaccompanied children who claimed asylum in the UK were wrongly classed as adults by the Home Office. The children were placed in hotels in Leeds, until welfare officers raised concerns about their ages and referred them to Children’s Services, who decided they were under 18. The Refugee Council has criticised the Home Office’s ‘hasty decision-making’ for putting the children at risk. 

In the Courts 

In Verzilov and Others v. Russia (application no. 25276/15), the European Court of Human Rights found there had been violations of Article 3 of the Convention (prohibition of inhumane or degrading treatment / lack of effective investigation) and Article 10 (freedom of expression). The case concerned a performance by the five members of the Russian feminist punk band, Pussy Riot, at the 2014 Winter Olympics held in Sochi. The band were performing a new protest song when ten men, some in Cossack uniforms, pulled them off stage, ripped off the band’s balaclavas, and lashed at them with whips. The Court held that the band’s version of the attack was undisputed and extremely grave. Moreover, regarding Article 3, it found the Russian state had failed to investigate the event appropriately. The Court found that the Cossacks were agents of the state, enlisted to help policing during the Sochi Winter Games. The Court held that as the Russian state had been responsible for the disturbance, it had prevented the band from exercising their freedom of expression, in violation of Article 10. The applicants were awarded damages. 

In Kovačević v. Bosnia and Herzegovina (application no. 43651/22), the ECHR found there had been a violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 12 (general prohibition of discrimination) of the Convention. The Court found the territorial and ethnic requirements of the electoral system in Bosnia and Herzegovina are discriminatory. The Dayton Peace Accords created a complex power-sharing system of governance between the three dominant ethnic groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina; the Bosniacs, Croats and Serbs. Only those affiliated with these ethnicities can run for the House of Peoples and Presidency, and voters who reside in either the Federation or Republika Srpska can only vote for candidates who affiliate with that same ethnicity (either Bosniac and Croat or Serb). The Court found that in this case, the applicant’s statutory right to vote was limited; he could only vote from the pool of candidates who identify as Bosniac or Croat because he lives in the Federation. That pool is further narrowed by the fact that only people who affiliate themselves with one of the three dominant groups can stand for government, thus discriminating against those who have no ethnic affiliation. The Court noted that ethnic representation should be secondary to political representation and that voters should not be forced to vote according to prescribed ethnic lines.