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Law Commission publishes call for evidence on the review of the law of homicide  

Published:
Photo of the Old Bailey statue of justice.

Today the Law Commission has published a call for evidence for its review of the law of homicide. 

This call for evidence outlines the current law and the issues being considered as part of the review. At this early stage of the project, the Commission is inviting evidence from stakeholders to inform provisional policy development. The Commission is keen to receive evidence about how the law of homicide operates and what the review should consider. Such evidence could include academic writings, reports, data, studies, legislation, case law, guidelines, accounts of personal experiences, and any other material which is relevant to the issues identified in this call for evidence. 

Evidence should be emailed to homicide@lawcommission.gov.uk by Friday 31 October 2025. 

We are pleased to launch this important work on the law of homicide by seeking evidence about how the law operates from anyone who is or has been affected by it, whether personally or professionally. We will use the evidence we receive to shape the scope and direction of the project.
Commissioner for Criminal Law, Professor Penney Lewis

The need for reform 

The law of homicide was subject to a thorough review by the Law Commission in the early 2000s. The Commission published: 

  • Recommendations for reform of partial defences to murder in 2004. Partial defences to murder include loss of control and diminished responsibility. When a partial defence is successful, the defendant will be convicted of manslaughter, instead of murder. These are different from full defences (such as duress and self-defence) because, when a full defence is successful, the defendant will be found not guilty in relation to the homicide. The recommendations for reform of partial defences were implemented for the most part in the Coroners and Justice Act 2009. 
  • Recommendations for reform of murder, manslaughter and infanticide in 2006. These recommendations concerned substantive homicide offences, including replacing the existing two-tiered structure (murder and manslaughter) with a three-tiered structure (first-degree murder, second-degree murder and manslaughter). The Government decided not to implement most of the recommendations. 

In the almost twenty years since the previous review, additional challenges have continued to expose the inadequacy and limitations of the law of homicide. These challenges include the operation of so-called “joint enterprise liability” (that is, the liability of some defendants in cases where multiple parties are involved in a homicide); and the extent to which the law reflects modern understandings of domestic abuse when victims of abuse kill their abuser.  

Recent widely reported cases, such as the killings of Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates in Nottingham and of Alice da Silva Aguiar, Bebe King and Elsie Dot Stancombe in Southport, have spotlighted the persisting problems with the law of homicide. Many have urged a review of aspects of the law, including Clare Wade KC in the 2023 Domestic Homicide Sentencing Review, the Rt Hon David Gauke in the recent Independent Sentencing Review, and His Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Inspectorate in their Inspection of Crown Prosecution Service actions in the Valdo Calocane case.  

The current review 

The current project is composed of three strands: 

  • Homicide offences. This includes a reconsideration and update of the Commission’s 2006 recommendations on murder, manslaughter and infanticide, in light of the developments since the previous review. Issues that fall under this strand include, but are not limited to: the structure of homicide offences; their fault elements (also known as “mental elements”); complicity in murder (including joint enterprise liability following the landmark Supreme Court decision in Jogee); “mercy” and consensual killings (but not euthanasia and assisted dying); and infanticide.  
  • Defences. This includes a review of the operation of partial defences to murder, following their 2009 reform. It will also include a review of full defences (such as duress and self-defence), to the extent that they raise issues relevant and unique to the law of homicide. Since full defences apply to any criminal offence, their wholesale review is outside the scope of the review of homicide. This strand will consider the operation of defences available to victims of domestic abuse who kill their abuser. 
  • The sentencing framework for murder. Unlike other criminal offences (including manslaughter), for which the Sentencing Council produces sentencing guidelines, the sentencing framework for murder is contained in legislation (Schedule 21 to the Sentencing Code). Murder carries a mandatory life sentence, however in most cases an offender will not spend the rest of their life in prison. The role of the sentencing judge is to impose a minimum term (sometimes called a “tariff”), that is the minimum time an offender must spend in prison before being eligible to apply for release on licence. In exceptionally serious cases, the judge may impose a whole life order, which means that an offender never becomes eligible to apply for release. A review of the appropriateness of the mandatory life sentence for murder is outside the scope of this review.  

The Law Commission’s project on defences for victims of domestic abuse who kill their abuser has been incorporated into the homicide review, with a view to considering holistically how the law of homicide operates for this group of defendants.