Area of law: Criminal law

A thorough review of the law of consent to provide greater predictability and to modernise the criminal law in England and Wales.

The Law Commission is consulting on reforms to the law governing criminal appeals, including the tests applied by appeal courts and the Criminal Cases Review Commission, post-trial retention of and access to evidence, and compensation and support for the wrongly convicted.

Reviewing the law relating to homicide offences, including full and partial defences, and the existing sentencing framework for murder.

The Law Commission has been asked by the Government to review the law on contempt of court and consider reform to improve its effectiveness, consistency and coherence.

Considering the way that the law operates when a victim of domestic abuse kills their abuser. This project will also cover sentencing when defendants are convicted of murder.

The Government has asked the Law Commission to examine the trial process and to consider the law, guidance and practice relating to the use of evidence in prosecutions of sexual offences.

We conducted a review of Part 2 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, also known as the post-conviction confiscation regime. We published our final report and recommendations on 9 November 2022.

The Government has accepted the Law Commission’s recommendations to reform the law in respect of intimate image offences, made in the 2022 Intimate Image Abuse report. A number of these recommendations have now been implemented in the Online Safety Act 2023.