Monday Message 06.10.25

News Bulletin

The Opening of the Legal Year

The 1st of October was the Opening of the Legal Year.  It began with the Lord Chancellor, the Rt. Hon. David Lammy MP, being formally sworn into his role by our Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill.

The text of his speech,  which affirmed his long commitment to criminal justice, the rule of law, and the  improvements that are much needed in our Crown Courts can be found here.

Also sworn in was the Solicitor General, the Rt. Hon. Ellie Reeves MP. We congratulate and welcome her into her new post and look forward to engaging with her in the future.

It was a wonderful day, marked with the traditional service in Westminster Abbey, attended by the judiciary, and members of the legal profession from all over the world in honour of the pivotal role that we all play in safeguarding the rule of law.

1,250 additional Sitting Days

As you know, we met and made representations to the Lord Chancellor David Lammy the week before last.  It was therefore heartening to hear him announce as part of the Opening of the Legal Year that extra funding was being provided to enable the Crown Court to sit for an additional 1,250 days. We applaud and thank Mr. Lammy for taking this first step towards tackling the backlog of cases and making sure that victims, accused and witnesses see their trials come to court more quickly.

However, as we said in our comments to the press, this is just a first step and we need more.  Coverage in the Evening Standard and the Times can be found here and here.

We need more sitting days; we need the infrastructure of our courts to be fixed; we need additional funding for the criminal bar.  While these additional sitting days will help, the crisis has not been alleviated. In many court centres, we are now routinely seeing cases listed for trial in 2027 and 2028. Over the last few weeks, several cases have been listed for trial in four years time.  On Friday, five were listed for October 2029. These delays blight the lives of victims, defendants, witnesses and all who are involved in the criminal justice system. Every increase in sitting days will see more cases brought to a timely conclusion.

We look forward to engaging further with Mr. Lammy, the MoJ, and the judiciary to continue our constructive discussions on what needs to be done next.

Leveson Review – Part 2

Last week we took part in a round table with Sir Brian Leveson to discuss his Part 2 Report on ‘Efficiency’ and the reforms required to make our courts fit for purpose, so that they function more smoothly, improve our working lives, and halt the exodus of criminal barristers from this profession that we love and still feel is worthwhile.

It was a productive meeting.  Sir Brian was engaged and appeared committed to doing what he could to assist the Criminal Bar. We hope to see that commitment transfer to his Part 2 report. We are meeting him again this month to discuss matters further, and to present more detailed submissions on what must change.

South Eastern Circuit Annual Dinner

The SEC Dinner last Friday, organised by Claire Davies KC, Leader of the Circuit and Aaron Dolan, at Lincoln’s Inn Great Hall was an absolutely splendid evening. The Lady Chief Justice of England and Wales, Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill, gave a wonderful speech, recognising the pressures that we are all under, and confirming her commitment to continuing to work with the Criminal Bar to make the improvements that are acutely needed for both the Bar and the Bench.

She particularly praised the recent initiative around Kindness at the Bar, applauding the work of Valerie Charbit of Red Lion Chambers in this area.

By way of reminder, the Kindness Report [Professor Robin Banerjee, Dr. Claire Durrant, with Valerie Charbit and Nicola Shannon KC] can be found here.

Upcoming Webinars

  • The CBA Education Committee will be hosting a further talk on the topic of Kindness by Valerie Charbit and Nicola Shannon KC on 16th October 2025, at 18.00hrs.
  • The South Eastern Circuit event Resilience at the Bar – A Conversation with Heidi Stonecliffe KC will take place on Wednesday 22nd October,  at 6pm.  To reserve your place, please see here.
  • The South Eastern Circuit and FLBA is jointly hosting a lecture on the disclosure process and linked hearings in the family and criminal courts on 16th October. For further details, contact Aaron.

The CBA Young Bar Day – Saturday 11th October 2025 – Inner Temple

This is your last call to sign up for this unique event, which promises to be a fantastic day of learning, networking, and advocacy skills development for young barristers up to 7 years call.

Lady Justice Whipple will deliver the keynote address, and our stellar faculty attending to give guidance includes: Mrs Justice Maura McGowan, HHJ Noel Lucas, HHJ Rosa Dean, HHJ Emma Nott, Ben Aina KC, Sarah Clarke KC, Sam Skinner KC, Claire Davies KC, Heidi Stonecliffe KC, and Thom Dyke.

We are incredibly grateful to them – and to the Kalisher Trust – for their support in making this event possible. For further information and to sign up, contact [email protected].

Announcements from the Criminal Procedure Rule Committee

The new, consolidated, Criminal Procedure Rules 2025 came into force on Monday 6th October 2025. The Rules page on this website now contains the new rules.

Law Commission Review on Homicide

In August 2025 the Law Commission published a call for evidence in respect of their MoJ-commissioned review into the law relating to homicide offences, including the availability of defences for murder and its sentencing framework. The Law Commission is particularly interested to gather information from those with experience of working in this area.

The key documents published by the Law Commission can be found in the links below:

The CBA has put together a team to provide a response, on which they have been working for some time. They are interested in obtaining the opinions of other barristers who practise in this area, and to that end invite you to share your views with them.   This exercise is not a survey of members’ views about the topics in the Review, some of which are likely to prompt major differences of opinion.  The purpose is to identify points of practice that will assist the Law Commission in forming its recommendations in due course

The Law Commission has identified a number of separate topics on which they have invited evidence. These include:

  • The current two-tier structure of homicide offences (murder / manslaughter) and the advantages or disadvantages of moving to a three-tier structure (first-degree murder / second-degree murder / manslaughter).
  • The fault element in murder.
  • The law of complicity (secondary liability) in homicide.
  •  “Mercy” and consensual killings.
  • Infanticide.
  • Partial defences (loss of control and diminished responsibility).
  • Full defences (including self-defence and duress).
  • Homicide offences in the context of domestic abuse.
  • Sentencing for homicide, including the sentencing of children and adults under the age of 20.

Full details on each of these topics are set out in the Call for Evidence document, including a helpful summary of the issues in Section 5 of the report.

Members with relevant experience of such cases are invited to provide their views on these topics by email by 17th October 2025 to: [email protected].

In our response, we will not quote or cite any example given without your express permission to do so. You will not be named.

In your email, please set out your experience, and confirm that you have considered the Law Commission Report, in the links above.

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