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LAWS
 Labour has created
more than 700 new offences in eight years. These include:
obstruction of a fire hydrant, which became an offence in
2004 and carries a £500 fine. The “Provision of
incorrect information by a plant breeder to the
Controller of Plant Variety Rights” law, created by
the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
(Defra) in the Plant Varieties Act 1997, carries a
maximum £1,000 fine. The Department of Health has
overseen the creation of 72 crimes, including several in
the Human Tissue Act 2004.
Under the Nurses, Midwives and Health Visitors Act 1997,
it became an offence “for a person other than a
registered midwife or a registered medical practitioner
to attend a woman in childbirth,” with a maximum
penalty of £2,500. The Home Office oversaw the creation
of 367 offences between 1997 and 2004, the Department for
Culture, Media and Sport created 76, the Treasury 44, and
the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister 62. (Source: Times Online)
The Lib Dem Home Affairs spokesman Nick
Clegg revealed Labour has created 3,000 criminal offences
in just nine years, one new crime for every day Mr Blair
has been in power. In the 60 years between 1925 and 1985,
there were only six Criminal Justice Acts but in the last
nine years alone, the Home Office has added no fewer than
60 major pieces of legislation, involving thousands of
pages and dozens of new crimes.
The taxman has been demanding new powers to arrest
suspects, take fingerprints and raid businesses. Police
want the right to bypass the courts and hand out summary
justice to yobs, even though they can ban them from town
centres already. And despite the new laws Ministers are
still pressing for yet more anti-terror measures and the
imposition of prohibitively expensive ID cards.
Yet in spite of all this violence is up, the detection
rate is down, fear of crime is rising and the
incompetence of the Home Office reduces justice to a
farce. We no longer control our borders. We have no idea
how many illegal migrants live here. We can't deport
foreign rapists and murderers because the Government is
obsessed with human rights. And we can't jail thieves and
thugs because our prisons are so overcrowded.
New laws are not only irrelevant in all this, but can
actually make matters worse. The Human Rights Act, for
example, has frustrated every serious attempt to confront
the terrorist threat. Instead of concentrating on the
essentials like more prisons, more police on the beat,
the better enforcement of existing law or allowing
wiretap evidence in terrorist cases, for example,
Ministers opt for new legislation, which allows them to
be seen to be doing something (even if it doesn't work).
(Source: This is London, Aug/06)
A legal principle which prevents people
being tried for the same crime twice is being scrapped in
England and Wales. The Court of Appeal can now quash an
acquittal and order a retrial when "new and
compelling" evidence is produced. Police plan to
re-examine the case of 22-year-old Julie Hogg, who was
murdered in a sex attack at her home in Billingham,
Teesside, in November 1989.
Boyfriend Billy Dunlop was tried for the murder of the
pizza delivery girl, but acquitted after the jury failed
to reach a verdict on two separate occasions. The change
will apply retrospectively, so someone could face a
second trial if evidence such as DNA material, new
witnesses or a confession came to light.
A Home Office spokesman said, "It is important the
public should have full confidence in the ability of the
criminal justice system to deliver justice. This can be
undermined if it is not possible to convict offenders for
very serious crimes where there is strong and viable
evidence of their guilt."
Director of Public Prosecutions Ken Macdonald expects no
more than "a handful" of cases to be brought a
year. A Crown Prosecution Service spokeswoman said,
"There has to be new evidence which was not
available at the time of the original trial. Just because
someone is reported to have confessed, in a book or a
newspaper interview, does not necessarily mean that is
evidence in a form we could use."
The National Crime Faculty believes there are 35 murder
cases in which acquitted defendants could be
re-investigated and new charges brought. The reforms,
which also allow hearsay evidence to be admissible in
court, come under the new Criminal Justice act. They
apply to 30 serious crimes, including murder, rape, Class
A drug offences and war crimes, but double jeopardy
remains in force for lesser offences.
The Bar Council's former chairman Matthias Kelly QC said
the law changes could "lead to prosecutions
routinely seeking a second bite of the cherry, if a case
flopped first time for good reason". And civil
liberties groups also condemned the move, fearing the law
could be used to persecute people and lead to
miscarriages of justice. However, it will only be
possible to retry an acquitted person once. The Stephen
Lawrence racist murder case is another episode where
detectives hope new evidence could come to light.
The following laws are still on the
statute books in Britain today:
l A bed may not be
hung out of a window.
l All English males
over the age 14 are to carry out 2 or so hours of longbow
practice a week supervised by the local clergy.
l Any person found
breaking a boiled egg at the sharp end will be sentenced
to 24 hours in the village stocks.
l Any boy under the
age of 10 may not see a naked mannequin.
l Damaging the grass
is illegal.
l Excluding Sundays,
it is perfectly legal to shoot a Scotsman with a bow and
arrow.
l It is illegal to
be drunk on Licensed Premises (in a pub or bar).
l It is illegal for
a lady to eat chocolates on a public conveyance.
l It is legal for a
male to urinate in public, as long it is on the rear
wheel of his motor vehicle and his right hand is on the
vehicle.
l It is illegal for
a woman to be topless in public except as a clerk in a
tropical fish store.
l London Hackney
Carriages (taxis/cabs) must carry a bale of hay and a
sack of oats.
l Mince pies can not
be eaten on Christmas day.
l Picking up
abandoned baggage is an act of terrorism.
l Placing a postage
stamp that bears the Queen (or King) upside down is
considered treason.
l It is illegal to
have sex on a parked motorcycle in London.
l Women are allowed
to bite off a man's nose if he kisses her against her
will.
l You can be fined
for wearing a tall hat at the theatre.
l It is illegal to
scatter someone's ashes if you spread them where they
could contaminate the water supply.
l It is an offence
to circle a traffic island more than three times.
l It is an offence
to let a stranger into your house to use the toilet if
you live in Scotland.
l Couples in
Birmingham can be fined £25 if they have sex "on
the steps of any church after the sun goes down".
However, the law says nothing about doing it in broad
daylight.
l A bloodhound is
the only animal in the world whose evidence is admissible
in a court of law.
l It is illegal to
take a cow along a road between the hours of 10am and
7pm, unless you have permission in advance from the
Commissioner of Police.
l It is an offence
to impersonate a Chelsea Pensioner.
l It is illegal to
show affection in public in Wales on Sundays.
l Cyclists must ring
their bells non-stop while the bike is moving.
l A pregnant woman
can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants. Even, if
she so requests, in a policeman’s helmet.
l It is illegal to
die in the Houses of Parliament.
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