The Offender Rehabilitation Bill would provide increased support and supervision upon release for those serving prison sentences of up to two years, and would make changes to the arrangements for community orders and suspended sentence orders. This Library Note provides background reading in advance of the Bill’s second reading in the House of Lords.
Offender Rehabilitation Bill [HL] (HL Bill 2 of 2013–14) (333 KB , PDF)
The Offender Rehabilitation Bill was announced in the 2013 Queen’s Speech, received its first reading on 9 May 2013 and is due to receive its second reading on 20 May 2013. The Bill makes provision to increase support and supervision upon release for those serving a sentence of less than two years and would make a number of changes to the arrangements for community orders and suspended sentence orders. The Bill also expands the potential use of post-release conditions to combat drug misuse. With the Bill forming part of the Government’s Transforming Rehabilitation strategy, this Note contains reaction to the Government’s proposals as a whole, and then provides background to the provisions contained in the Bill.
Offender Rehabilitation Bill [HL] (HL Bill 2 of 2013–14) (333 KB , PDF)
An estimated 2.3 million people aged 16 years and over experienced domestic abuse in the year ending March 2024. Domestic Abuse Commissioner Nicole Jacobs has raised concerns about inconsistent support for victims and survivors and has called for urgent reform. The government has recently announced several policies aimed at enhancing this support, including a pilot of ‘domestic abuse protection notices’ and ‘domestic abuse protection orders’.
Reported retail crime has increased significantly in recent years. This criminal activity, encompassing offences such as shoplifting and assaults on retail workers, has impacted businesses, their employees and local economies. The government has outlined plans to tackle retail crime in response to this issue. This includes legislating to create a new specific offence of assaulting a retail worker and to remove the threshold on so-called “low-value” shoplifting offences.
This bill aims to make it illegal to create or solicit sexually explicit or intimate images without the consent of the people in them. This would include deepfake content, where photos or video are digitally manipulated to make a person appear to be in an intimate situation. The government has said that banning the creation of non-consensual explicit deepfake content is a priority.
![Non-Consensual Sexually Explicit Images and Videos (Offences) Bill [HL]: HL Bill 26 of 2024–25](https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/content/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/Security-VIGs-568x426.jpg)