Clinks Policy Briefing | April 2025

Welcome to the April 2025 edition of the Clinks Policy Briefing. Let us know your thoughts about this newsletter, or any of the things it has covered by emailing the Policy team.

This month:

Our Policy Work, including the publication of State of the Sector 2024, voluntary sector roundtables as part of Dame Anne Owers' review into the handling of prison capacity, the RR3 Community Provision SIG report into mental health provision, and recruitment for a Specialist Policy Officer.
Latest Justice News, including the developments around the Sentencing Council's guidance on requesting pre-sentence reports culminating in the Government bringing forward the Sentencing Guidelines (Pre-sentence Reports) Bill, the recommencement of Operation Safeguard, construction of new houseblocks at HMP Highpoint, the opening of HMP Millsike, and changes to senior officials within the MoJ.
Parliamentary News, including a range of oral evidence sessions from the Justice Committee and the Justice and Home Affairs Committee, the publication of the Public Accounts Committee's report into prison estate capacity following its inquiry, a number of questions and statements about the Sentencing Council guidelines about pre-sentence reports, a debate on preventing drug deaths, the latest session of Justice Questions, and the upcoming Second Reading, and remaining stages of the Sentencing Guidelines (Pre-sentence Reports) Bill.
Sector Insights, including articles, reports, and correspondence on women in the criminal justice system, the latest health and justice updates, a new policy framework on ROTL in youth custody to be piloted, several recent papers from the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman particularly concerning handling the property of people in prison and complaints about property, the latest prison performance data giving the costs of prison places, HM Inspectorate of Probation's report on the previous year's inspections, and a number of broader charity sector items, including a warning from the Charity Commission about fraudulent letters, a summary of key measures from the Chancellor's Spring Statement, the publication of Clink's response to NCVO's consultation on an updated Civil Society Covenant, and details on the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme for charities and civil society, amongst a range of other sector insights and publications.
Get Involved, including Clinks' upcoming local area criminal justice forums, the Joint Committee on Human Rights inquiry into the Crime and Policing Bill, and a range of wider sector events, including from the Centre for Justice Innovation, HM Inspectorate of Probation, the Making Every Adult Matter Coalition, and the Women's Resource Centre.

Last week, Clinks was delighted to publish its latest State of the Sector research for 2024. Now in its eleventh year, this research provides a snapshot of how voluntary organisations working in criminal justice are faring and the wider landscape within which they are operating. This year, in response to feedback, we have taken a new, fully qualitative approach, partnering with NCVO to hold in-depth focus groups and interviews. This has enabled us to gather fresh insights into persistent challenges. Key findings include:

Concerns around media portrayals of criminal justice issues
The value of coalitions and alliances, and how these might be expanded
The reverberations of the Covid-19 pandemic and how they are continuing to affect the sector
Staffing challenges, including recruitment and retention, and supporting the mental health and wellbeing of frontline staff
Vetting and challenges around lived experience engagement
How funders and others can better support the voluntary sector.

Read our full 2024 report on our website, or peruse the Executive Summary.

This month, we have held a number of voluntary sector roundtables as part of Dame Anne Owers' ongoing review into the handling of prison capacity. Sessions held so fay have looked at the experiences of voluntary organisations working with people in remand and during the reception phase of a prison sentence; working with people serving long sentences; and working on resettlement. Given the interest in taking part in these roundtables, a further session will be organised looking at resettlement.

Following the roundtable we held March, Clinks submitted its response to the Welsh Affairs Committee's inquiry into prisons, probation, and rehabilitation in Wales. Our response will be published on our website in due course.

The Reducing Reoffending Third Sector Advisory Board (RR3) Special Interest Group (SIG) on Community Provision has published its first report. This looks at the challenges faced by people in contact with the criminal justice system when accessing mental health services in the community. The SIG will be publishing a second report focussing on community drug and alcohol services in the next few weeks.

Clinks is recruiting a Specialist Policy Officer to join out National Influencing and Networks Directorate. This is a full-time, remote role, with an annual salary of £35,019. This is a fantastic opportunity to help shape the national policy agenda to support the voluntary sector working in criminal justice.

We are seeking someone with policy expertise in criminal justice, a commitment to equity and inclusion, and the ability to produce clear, evidence-based policy to support change. The deadline for applications is midday on Monday 21 April 2025, with interviews being held online during the week beginning 28 April 2025.

Imposition of Community and Custodial Sentences Guideline, and Sentencing Guidelines (Pre-sentence Reports) Bill

The Sentencing Council previously announced that it was going to introduce new sentencing guidelines on the imposition of sentences, directing sentencers to consider necessary a pre-sentence reports (PSRs) before sentencing some cohorts of people, including people from an ethnic minority, cultural minority and/or faith minority community, women, people who are pregnant or post-natal, people who are the sole or primary carer for dependent relatives, young adults, and people at risk of their first custodial sentence or a custodial sentence of two years or less.

Following this announcement, the Sentencing Council's plans were criticised by both the Lord Chancellor, Shabana Mahmood, and the shadow Secretary of State, Robert Jenrick. The Lord Chancellor said in a letter to the Sentencing Council, 'as someone who is from an ethnic minority background myself, I do not stand for any differential treatment before the law'.

After this initial criticism, the Chair of the Sentencing Council, Lord Justice William Davis, wrote to the Lord Chancellor on 10 March setting out the process that had been followed to devise the new guidelines, and the rationale and evidence base for the changes. In this letter he writes, 'for all the reasons I have given, I do not accept the premise of [the Lord Chancellor's] objection to the relevant part of the list of cohorts for whom a pre-sentence report will normally be considered necessary'.

The Lord Chancellor wrote again to the Chair of the Sentencing Council on 20 March, following a meeting to discuss the new imposition of sentences guidelines. Ms Mahmood said 'it is this Government's policy to oppose differential treatment on the basis of race or ethnicity in our courts. Doing so offends the principle of fair treatment before the law'. She explains she considers encouraging a judge to request a PSR for one named cohort and not another as amounting to differential treatment. However, the Government supports the wider use of PSRs in the courts, and says, 'they can be valuable in all cases and for all defendants, regardless of their membership of a certain cohort, should a judge believe them to be required'. As such, the Lord Chancellor welcomes the widely drawn lines in the new guidance about the benefits of PSRs generally, but requests the full list of cohorts to be removed.

Lord Justice Davis responded to the Lord Chancellor's letter on 27 March, after the Sentencing Council had been able to meet to consider the matters raised in her letter. In this, he explained that the Council 'concluded that the guideline did not require revision'. However, some clarification of the language should be included to address misunderstandings that may have emerged.

On 31 March, the Sentencing Council announced that following a meeting with the Lord Chancellor about the plans to introduce legislation that would make the list of cohorts for PSRs unlawful, the Council would delay the date at which the new imposition guidance comes into force, whilst that Bill passes through Parliament.

On 1 April, the Lord Chancellor gave a statement to the House of Commons on Sentencing Council Guidelines, and published the Sentencing Guidelines (Pre-sentence Reports) Bill. This Bill would amend the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 to prohibit sentencing guidelines about PSRs from being framed by reference to different personal characteristics of a defendant.

Following the publication of this legislation, Clinks Chief Executive, Anne Fox, shared a statement. She said, 'the voluntary sector has been extensively involved in efforts to shine a spotlight on the racial disparities that exist across the criminal justice system. Yet progress to reduce these disparities has stalled in recent years, and we know that outcomes remain unequal [...]. The suggested guidelines should be viewed within a wider context, given that they would cater for groups who have faced inequality when coming into contact with the criminal justice system. This includes (but is not limited to) women, pregnant women, and young adults.'

Anne concluded, 'we will continue to engage with the Government on this issue buy representing the views of our members, and by continuing to push for action to tackle racial disparities.' Read the statement in full in Clinks' LinkedIn post.

Recommencement of Operation Safeguard

ON 18 March, the Lord Chancellor made a written ministerial statement on the management of the prison estate. In this statement, she notes that the prison estate is operating at more than 99% capacity. Given this, Ms Mahmood announced that Operation Safeguard will be reactivated to better manage the flow of people into the prison estate. This means HMPPS and police forces will be able to work together to plan which which police cells may be needed to hold people on any particular day. Operation Safeguard was previously deactivated in October 2024. The Lord Chancellor added that there is a 'clear plan to improve capacity and minimise the use of [Operation] Safeguard'.

Expansion of HMP Highpoint

The government announced that HMP Highpoint in Suffolk would be expanded through the construction of three new houseblocks by summer 2027. This addition will add 700 new places to HMP Highpoint, increasing its capacity by over 50%.

HMP Millsike Opens

The Lord Chancellor opened the newly constructed prison, HMP Millsike, in Yorkshire. This is the first of four new prisons to be built as part of the Government's plan to create an additional 14,000 prison places by 2031. This new category C prison will be operated by Mitie Care and Custody, with education and workplace training provided by PeoplePlus.

Changes to Senior Official in the Ministry of Justice

The Cabinet Office announced that Dame Antonia Romeo, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), would be moving to become the Permanent Secretary at the Home Office. In a letter to the Chair of the Justice Committee, Dame Antonia notes she is due to leave the MoJ on 11 April to take up her new post. She has also agreed with the Lord Chancellor and the Cabinet Secretary that Amy Rees, Chief Executive Officer of HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) will take over as interim Permanent Secretary until a new Permanent Secretary has been appointed. Phil Copple, the current Director General of Operations of HMPPS will cover the HMPPS CEO role in this period.

Victims are now able to Observe Private Parole Board Hearings

The MoJ and the Parole Board announced that from 1 April, victims of crime from England and Wales will be able to apply to attend the private parole hearings of their perpetrators. This follows a pilot that was run in the South-West Probation region between 2022 and 2023. Victims who are part of the Victim Contact Scheme will apply to the Parole Board to attend hearings with the help of their victim liaison officer. Those whose application is granted will observe remotely and will then be provided with in-person support during the hearing. They will also be directed to additional support following the proceedings if necessary. It was also noted that victims will not be able to observe the entire parole hearing, as certain evidence, such as that relating to risk management, must be held in private.

Recent Business

On Tuesday 4 March, the Justice Committee held a non-inquiry oral evidence session with senior officials from the MoJ, HMPPS, and HM Courts and Tribunal Service, including the Permanent Secretary, Dame Antonia Romeo, and Chief Executive of HMPPS, Amy Rees, looking at the work of the MoJ.

On Tuesday 11 March, the House of Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee heard oral evidence from Helen Beresford, Director of External Affairs at Nacro, and Andrew Neilson, Campaigns Director at The Howard League for Penal Reform. This formed part of the Committee's inquiry into prison culture.

Later that same day, the House of Commons Justice Committee held an oral evidence session exploring prison education as part of its inquiry into rehabilitation and resettlement. Witnesses for this session included Jon Collins, Chief Executive of Prisoners' Education Trust, and Annick Platt, National Operations Director of Novus.

Also on 11 March, Justice Questions took place in the House of Commons, giving MPs an opportunity to put questions to MoJ ministers. Topics covered included using technology to improve the efficiency of the criminal justice system, violence against women and girls, resettlement for people leaving prison, illegal drug use in prisons, support for women who have committed offences, the Interim Report from the Independent Sentencing Review, prison capacity, prison urgent notifications, assaults on prison staff, the changes to sentencing guidelines around PSRs, the deportation of people who are foreign nationals serving prison sentences in England and Wales, accommodation for people with convictions, support for probation officers, and prison maintenance, amongst others.

On Friday 14 March, the Public Accounts Committee published its report into prison estate capacity. This follows the Committee's inquiry, to which Clinks submitted written evidence. Amongst other things, the Committee notes 'while the efforts of HMPPS staff to avert disaster are admirable, this state of crisis undermines the efforts to rehabilitate prisoners and reduce reoffending. It also represents poor value for money for the taxpayer, with the MoJ and HMPPS unable to make sufficient progress on maintaining existing cells, and needing to rent police cells due to a lack of capacity'. The Committee also cautions, 'any decisions to divert more people from prison will likely increase pressures on other parts of the system, particularly the Probation Service, which already has issues with staff shortages and high caseloads'. The Government will respond to the Committee's conclusions and recommendations through a Treasury Minute in due course.

On Monday 17 March, the shadow Justice Secretary, Robert Jenrick (Conservative; Newark) asked an urgent question in the House of Commons about the Sentencing Council's publication of community and custodial sentence guidelines. The minister with responsibility for sentencing, Sir Nic Dakin, responded to this question for the Government.

This urgent question was repeated in the House of Lords on Wednesday 19 March, where peers were able to raise questions. Lord Timpson responded to peers for the Government.

On Tuesday 18 March, the Justice and Home Affairs Committee held a further oral evidence session as part of its prison culture inquiry. Witnesses for this session include Kate Fraser, Head of Practice at Women in Prison.

On Monday 24 March, Baroness Burt of Solihull (Liberal Democrat) led an oral question in the House of Lords on the number of people currently serving Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences, whether in prison or on licence, who have served more than 10 years over their original tariff, and the percentage of people serving IPP sentences this represents.

On Thursday 27 March, Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party; Strangford) led a debate in Westminster Hall into the prevention of drug deaths. Opening the debate Mr Shannon highlighted the increase in the number of drug deaths across the UK, the challenges for people with both substance use needs and mental health needs to access services, and the stigma that surrounds people who use substances, amongst other issues. He also spoke about the recommendations made in Dame Carol Black's review.

Responding for the Government, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Ashley Dalton, said that this is a public health issue, and notes that many people with substance use needs also have multiple and complex needs. Whilst the Government does not have plans to decriminalise drug possession, the Minister said they support programmes that divert people who use substances away from the criminal justice system and into treatment. Ms Dalton also said the Government are 'committed to ensuring the cohesion between mental health services and substance use services'.

On Tuesday 1 April, the Justice and Home Affairs Committee held the latest oral evidence session for its inquiry into prison culture. In this session, the Committee heard evidence from the Minister, Lord Timpson, and Phil Copple, Director General of Operations at HMPPS.

Also on that Tuesday, the Lord Chancellor made a statement to the House of Commons regarding the Sentencing Council guidelines, including announcing the introduction of the Sentencing Guidelines (Pre-sentence Report) Bill. This statement was repeated by Lord Timpson in the House of Lords on Thursday 3 April. Read more about the proposed changes to the sentencing guidelines and the Bill in the 'Latest Justice News' section above.

Separately to those statements, on Wednesday 2 April, Lord Carlile of Berriew (Crossbench) asked an oral question in the House of Lords about the steps the Government was taking in response to the guidelines recently issue by the Sentencing Council. Lord Timpson responded for the Government.

Upcoming Business

The House of Commons rose today (Tuesday 8 April) for the Easter Recess. The House of Lords rose on Thursday 3 April. Both Houses return on Tuesday 22 April 2025.

On Tuesday 22 April, the next edition of Justice Questions will be held in the House of Commons.

Later that day, the House of Commons will debate the Sentencing Guidelines (Pre-sentence Reports) Bill at Second Reading. Find out more details about the Bill itself above.

On Wednesday 23 April, the Mental Health Bill will go through its final stage in the House of Lords - Third Reading. Once it passes this stage, the Bill will be passed over the House of Commons, to be debated and amended.

On Wednesday 30 April, the Sentencing Guidelines (Pre-sentence Reports) Bill we be considered in Committee of the whole House. This means all MPs will be able to participate in the line-by-line scrutiny of the Bill, and table and vote on amendments. After that, the Bill will also progress through its remaining stages (Report and Third Reading), before being passed over to the House of Lords.

Sentencing

The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies published an article that considers public views on sentencing and the importance of listening to them as part of sentencing reform. The article highlights research being carried out into the sociocultural drivers of punitive public attitudes, and the need to ensure reforms that reduce the use of imprisonment are accompanied by 'a story of sentencing to reshape the public discourse'. It concludes that pushing through a liberalisation of justice policy against a public already concerned that prison conditions are 'too easy' risks undermining the legitimacy of the system. As such, it argues the challenge now is to develop a robust strategy to achieve the change for which the Sentencing Review's interim report has identified the need.

Women

The Centre for Justice Innovation (CJI) published an evidence and practice briefing on pre-court diversion for women. It aims to support practitioners looking to develop or improve such diversion schemes, laying out the policy landscape around women's diversion, outlining the evidence on why diversion is especially important for women, and giving a case study of a successful scheme for women. It concludes by distilling this into overarching best practice principles for pre-court diversion for women.

To mark International Women's Day, the CJI published a blog reflecting on women in justice, and the appetite for change on how the justice system responds to women. The blog notes the Government's commitment to reducing the number of women sent to prison, halving violence against women and girls in the next decade, and creating the new Women's Justice Board. It then goes into highlight some of the CJI's work in building effective ways of minimising the contact between women and girls and the formal justice system, as well as work being carried out by others in this area.

The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, in partnership with the National Women's Justice Coalition, published a report looking at why the criminal justice system continues to fail women, and what needs to change. Breaking out of the Justice Loop: Creating a criminal justice system that works for women concludes by making recommendations across a range of different domains, including the new Women's Justice Board, around sentencing and probation reform, for women's centres and specialist organisations, and regarding a public health approach to address the root causes of women's criminalisation.

The Justice Committee recently published a letter it received from Lord Timpson, who was writing to respond to a number of questions the Committee posed about the treatment of pregnant women in the criminal justice system. In his letter, Lord Timpson particularly covered the restraint of pregnant women and pregnant women held on remand.

Health and Justice

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) updated the guidance around managing cases of clade II mpox in prisons and places of detention. The updated information relates to vaccination via in-reach services.

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) published its work programme for 2025. This includes both Government commissioned workstreams and self-commissioned workstreams. The areas the ACMD will be looking at this year include 'internet facilitated drug markets', 'semi-synthetic cannabinoids', and 'drug use in ethnic minority groups'.

The MoJ published the latest reports in its Better Outcomes through Linked Data (BOLD) series. These reports look at various aspects of substance use and treatment in Wales.

Following the announcement that NHS England would be abolished and cuts of 50% would be made to integrated care board running costs, National Voices was invited to give evidence to the Health and Social Care Committee. Based on the evidence gathered for that session, it has developed a paper covering its members' concerns. The concerns noted in the paper included ensuring legacy, memory, and expertise is not lost as NHS England is merged into the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), and outlining that this move back to DHSC can result in a loss of trust, widening health inequalities and leading to a shift of specialised commissioning.

Youth Justice

The MoJ published a report presenting the findings of an exploratory analysis of repeat offending by children and young people in England and Wales. The analysis is based on newly linked administrative data made available through the MoJ Data First Programme. Findings included for people with convictions assessed at age 18, those whose offending was prolific had higher levels of need compared to those whose offending was non-prolific across all eight criminogenic areas. The areas where the largest difference was exhibited in significant need between people whose offending was prolific and those whose offending was non-prolific were 'school attendance', 'susceptibility to influence by criminal associates', and 'a history of childhood behavioural problems'.

The MoJ, HMPPS, and the Youth Custody Service (YCS) published a new policy framework on release on temporary licence in youth custody. The framework will be piloted from 1 May 2025 and will only apply to a limited number of establishments during this time. For the pilot sites, the framework introduces standardised eligibility criteria for children serving custodial sentences and provides guidance to support a general presumption in favour of ROTL, subject to individual suitability and risk assessments. After learning from this pilot has been gathered, the policy framework will be reviewed ahead of implementation across the entire youth estate.

Prisons

The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) published a Learning lessons bulletin looking at the investigations of property complaints in prison. The PPO notes that property complaints are the most common complaint it receives. In undertaking its research, repeat issues including property going missing during transfers, missing property cards, and problems with prison laundry were found. The Ombudsman, Adrian Usher, said, 'prisons are insufficiently motivated to improve property practices'. The PPO believes HMPPS would benefit by implementing the suggested policy and operational improvements, with a significant reduction in the amount of staff time being spent dealing with property complaints.

Following this Learning lessons bulletin, the PPO went on to publish a Policy into Practice paper on the handling of the property of people in prison. The paper highlights the important learning for prison staff and summarises the property handling issues it finds in its cases.

Alongside this, the PPO also published a second Policy into Practice paper on the handling of property complaints. This highlights important learning for prison staff on handling complaints related to the property of people in prison. Both of these papers draw on case studies from the PPO's cases to highlight the issues it raises.

The Prisoners' Education Trust (PET) published a blog by Chief Executive Jon Collins, looking at its work influencing the Government's prisons agenda. In this blog, PET highlights its response to the Sentencing Review that focussed on whether people should be able to earn earlier release by participating in education, and the evidence it provided to a number of select committee inquiries, including the Justice Committee's inquiry into rehabilitation and resettlement, the Public Account Committee's inquiry into prison estate capacity, the Justice and Home Affairs Committee's inquiry into prison culture, and the Education Committee's inquiry into further education and skills.

HMPPS published a report that explored if Participatory Action Research methods could be used to enhance understanding and improve cultural experiences for staff and people in prison. Participatory Action Research uses a reflective and cyclical process to support those involved in a social issue to explore, understand, and take action to address the issues they are experiencing. Actions and decisions to address the issues being tackled are determined by a research group made up of those who are affected by or 'closest to' it.

The findings indicated, 'strikingly', how valuable the people involved in the research felt it had been for them. Particularly for the people in prison, being involved had great personal value helping them to improve things like their confidence and ability to advocate for themselves. There was also improved understanding within the groups of the challenges each other faced, and both groups were unanimous about the value of Participatory Action Research as an approach to culture change in prisons, and how having people external to the prison involved had been helpful.

The MoJ and HMPPS published the latest prison performance data for 2023 to 2024, setting out prison unit costs. This shows that for 2023-24, the cost per prison place is £56,987, and the total cost per person in prison is £53,801. Adjusting for inflation, this gives a real terms increase of 3.8% per place, but a real terms decrease of 0.8% per person in prison.

Probation

HM Inspectorate (HMI) of Probation published its 2024 Annual Report of Probation Services in England and Wales. Summarising the inspections HMI Probation carried out over the last year, key findings included that the three probation regions inspected between February 2024 and February 2025 were all rated 'requires improvement', and of the 24 probation delivery units (PDUs) inspected, 10 were rated as 'requires improvement' and 14 as 'inadequate'. Moreover, in the inspections of the three regions, all three were rated as 'inadequate' in supporting people on probation to change. The Inspectorate also consistently found staffing problems across PDUs, reflecting national challenges, impacting the quality of work to support people on probation and protect victims.

HMI Probation also published the latest report in its Academic Insight series, Carefully and humanely progressing responsible and ethical digitisation in probation. This report provides a guide for both practice and policy, helping to improve understanding of the practical steps and actions needed to help support people in probation with digital resources as a means to support their desistance.

HMPPS published data on trainee probation officer recruitment for April 2024 to March 2025. This is the first of a new annual transparency publication, which will be published in the first week of April each year and confirm the number of new trainee probation officers onboarded into HMPPS for the previous financial year. A more detailed breakdown of those onboarded will continue to be provided in the mid-May publication of the Prison and Probation Officer Recruitment Annex. This release showed a total of 1,057 trainee probation officers starting in 2024-25.

Human Rights

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) published its strategic plan for 2025 to 2028. The EHRC is Britain's independent equality and human rights regulator whose role is to make the country fairer by enforcing and upholding the laws that safeguard everyone's rights to fairness, dignity, and respect. Over the next three-year period, the ECHR explains that it will organise its work under three 'pillars': core regulation of equality and human rights; agile responses to equality and human rights risks and opportunities; and programmes focussed on complex equality and human rights challenges.

Courts

The CJI published its third Family Drug and Alcohol Courts annual report, covering 2024. This highlights the development of these courts seen over the last year, and the growth of new research on their impact. This includes the first cost-benefit analysis, which demonstrated that for every £1 spent on Family Drug and Alcohol Courts teams, £3.20 of net savings are returned to the taxpayer. The report also pulls together key data on the the activity and impact of these courts over 2024.

Charities

The Charity Commission published an article warning about fraudulent letters being sent on its behalf to charities and trustees. It notes the messages typically request action to be taken, such as removing a trustee or chief executive from their position, releasing funds as part of a grant, or supplying documents such as a passport or utility bill. The Commission notes it has reported the incidents to Action Fraud and will continue to monitor the situation. In the article, the Commission also gives some information to help charities and trustees work out whether correspondence is real or fake - see the full details here. It concludes by saying if someone is in any doubt, it should contact the Commission to check.

Following the Chancellor of the Exchequer's Spring Statement at the end of March, NCVO published a blog summarising what it means for charities. NCVO highlights the wide-ranging package of welfare reforms, the abolition of NHS England with its core delivery and commissioning functions being absorbed into the Department of Health and Social Care, a new approach to regulation with the aim of simplifying the regulatory environment across sectors including civil society, and continued constraint on departmental spending.

Clinks published the response it submitted to NCVO's consultation on the new draft principles for the Civil Society Covenant. The Covenant is an agreement to improve and rest the relationship between civil society and government. Alongside this, we also published a blog that highlights the draft principles and summarises Clinks response.

The Home Office (HO) have published guidance for charities and civil society on the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme. The HO says this scheme will protect the safety and interests of the UK by improving the understanding of activity taking place in the UK at the instruction of a foreign state or certain foreign state-controlled organisations. The scheme is contained in part 4 of the National Security Act 2023. These documents provide additional sector-specific information on the scheme for charities and other not-for-profit organisations, including guidance on how funding scenarios could be in scope of registration requirements and the exception to publication for where an individual's safety could be put at risk. The HO also notes that if you are affected by the scheme, it is your responsibility to comply with it based on your own specific circumstances.

Clinks Events

Over the course of May, Clinks is holding a series of online local area criminal justice forums. Details of all the forums are available on the Clinks events page. The dates for the upcoming forums and links to book places are available below:

Wider Sector Events

The Centre for Justice Innovation (CJI) are holding the next event in their Expert Voices series, looking at women's experiences of court. The event will take place online, on Tuesday 22 April from 12:30-13:30 and it is free to book places to attend.

The following week, on Monday 28 April, the CJI are holding an online event to launch their new research into effective substance use treatment for women, with an introduction from Dame Carol Black. The event takes place from 13:30- 14:00 and is free to book places to attend.

HM Inspectorate (HMI) of Probation is holding an online event to launch its National Inspection report for 2025. This report looks at how effectively HMPPS is working to support, enable, and drive the delivery plan of probation services in England and Wales. This event will include a questions and answer session. This free event will take place 12:00- 13:00 on Wednesday 30 April.

NPC is holding an event to launch its report into how funding is allocated for the voluntary sector in the criminal justice system. The research aims to better understand how funding is currently allocated, so that ways can be found to make the system easier to navigate, increase collaboration, and improve services. This free event takes place online on Thursday 1 May, from 14:00-15:30.

The Making Every Adult Matter (MEAM) coalition is holding the National Disadvantage Summit 2025 to deepen cross-sector collaboration, and hear new perspectives about the path to change. The event begins with morning session entitled 'Extending the invitation: broadening partnerships and finding shared vision', followed by two series of varied breakout sessions including a session on building strong links with criminal justice and another on working more closely with people with current 'living' experience, and a closing session, 'Hidden depths: how can we deepen partnerships for greater impact'. The full programme for the event is available online. The event is taking place in-person, in London (NW1), from 10:00-16:30, and tickets are £175.

The Women's Resource Centre is holding its 2025 Women's Sector Leadership Conference, with the theme of 'Reclaiming our Power: Organising for Change'. The keynote speech for the event is titled 'The women's sector's role in creating political and social change', and there will also be an opportunity to attend two of a selection of seven workshops during the event. More details about the workshops and the Conference, including how to book, are available online. The event is taking place in-person in Birmingham, from 09:30-18:00 on Wednesday 25 June, and is free to attend for the UK women's sector and all supporters, with women from Birmingham and the surrounding areas particularly welcome. The number of attendees for this conference will initially be capped at three per organisation. If spaces open up close to the event, this will be relaxed. The deadline to register to attend is 11 June.

Inquiries

The Joint Committee on Human Rights has opened an inquiry into the Crime and Policing Bill that is currently passing through Parliament. This aims to consider the Bill's compatibility with international and domestic human rights standards. As part of this, the Committee have opened a call for evidence, which is open until Friday 25 April 2025, with 12 questions on which they are particularly interested in receiving evidence.

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This month's edition was written by...

Clinks Specialist Policy Officer, Franklin Barrington

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