Reform Evaluation

• • 2015 Law commission report on Offences Against the Person act 1861
  • modernising law on violence
  • modifying previous recommendations suggested by the Home Office
• Assault and Battery

  2 new offences:

  • physical assault - person intentionally or recklessly applied force to or causes an impact on the body of another, without the consent of that other
  • threatened assault - intentionally or recklessly causes another to think that any such force or impact is or may be imminent and that other does not consent to the conduct in question
• Offences Against the Person Act 1861

  • clause 1: intentionally causing serious injury; maximum sentence of life (replacing s.18)
  • clause 2: recklessly causing serious injury; maximum of 7 years (replacing s.20)
  • clause 3: intentionally or recklessly causing injury; maximum 5 years (replacing s.47)
• Professor Andrew Ashworth

  • identifies difficulties with reform proposals
  • uncertainty to meaning of 'injury'
  • no clear distinction between injury and serious injury
  • only one offence dealing with injury and two dealing with serious injury
• Law Commissioner's plans to update the law have not been implemented

  • modernising the definitions and sentences would make the law more morally acceptable in the 21st century
  • new law would better reflect issues connected to both physical and mental health