This proposed law would place a duty on the government to make arrangements to ensure those serving sentences of imprisonment for public protection have been resentenced within 24 months of the act being passed.
Imprisonment for Public Protection (Re-sentencing) Bill [HL] (340 KB , PDF)
The bill would require the government to make arrangements to ensure all individuals serving sentences of imprisonment for public protection (IPP sentences) have been resentenced within 24 months of the act being passed. The government would also be required to establish a committee to provide advice on the resentencing exercise.
IPP sentences were indeterminate sentences designed to protect the public from serious offenders whose crimes did not merit a life sentence. However, they were abolished in 2012 following concerns raised about their implementation and impact on IPP prisoners’ release prospects. The abolition did not apply retrospectively to those who were already serving an IPP sentence. As of 30 September 2024, there were 1,095 offenders still serving an IPP sentence who had never been released from prison on licence.
In 2022, following repeated concerns raised by campaign groups and parliamentarians about the number of IPP prisoners who remained in prison beyond their tariff period, the House of Commons Justice Committee recommended the government introduce legislation to enable a resentencing exercise to be undertaken of all IPP prisoners. At the time, the then Conservative government said it would not support a resentencing exercise. The bill would implement the committee’s proposal.
Imprisonment for Public Protection (Re-sentencing) Bill [HL] (340 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)