Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012
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| Long title | An Act to make provision about legal aid; to make further provision about funding legal services; to make provision about costs and other amounts awarded in civil and criminal proceedings; to make provision about referral fees in connection with the provision of legal services; to make provision about sentencing offenders, including provision about release on licence or otherwise; to make provision about the collection of fines and other sums; to make provision about bail and about remand otherwise than on bail; to make provision about the employment, payment and transfer of persons detained in prisons and other institutions; to make provision about penalty notices for disorderly behaviour and cautions; to make provision about the rehabilitation of offenders; to create new offences of threatening with a weapon in public or on school premises and of causing serious injury by dangerous driving; to create a new offence relating to squatting; to increase penalties for offences relating to scrap metal dealing and to create a new offence relating to payment for scrap metal; and to amend section 76 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008. |
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| Citation | 10 |
| Introduced by | Mike Weatherley MP |
| Territorial extent | England, Wales & Scotland |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 1 May 2012 |
| History of passage through Parliament | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Text of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk | |
| Revised text of statute as amended | |
The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) is a statute of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, creating reforms to the justice system. The bill for the act was introduced in the House of Commons on 21 June 2011, and received Royal Assent on 1 May 2012.
Among other measures, the act:
The creation of a new offence for squatting was proposed by Mike Weatherley, Member of Parliament (MP) for Hove in East Sussex, who had been campaigning against squatting since being elected to Parliament in 2010. In a consultation held in 2011, the government raised the option of criminalising squatting in commercial (non-residential) properties. Following responses to the consultation indicating a lower level of concern over such squatting, it indicated that it had no current plans to extend the definition of the offense.
At the time, polling indicated the public were largely in favour of criminalising squatting, with a YouGov poll finding eight out of ten people agreed with the change.
Crispin Blunt, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Prisons and Youth Justice within the Ministry of Justice at the time, justified the changes to the law, saying:
"I accept that the law already provides a degree of protection for both commercial and residential property owners as offences such as criminal damage and burglary may apply in certain circumstances. There is also an offence under section 7 of the Criminal Law Act 1977 that applies where a trespasser fails to leave residential premises on being required to do so by or on behalf of a 'displaced residential occupier' or a 'protected intending occupier'. This offence means that people who have effectively been made homeless as a result of occupation of their properties by squatters can already call the police to report an offence. But there are many residential property owners, including landlords, local authorities and second home owners, who cannot be classified as 'displaced residential occupiers' or 'protected intending occupiers'."
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