Chair Criminal Cases Review Commission. Member Women’s Justice Bd.
Ex Victims’ Commissioner, Solicitor Gen & PCC. Fellow St Hilda’s Oxford. Writer. Labour Party
Welcome and thank you for taking the time to look at my personal website. Here you will find a range of information on the work I do and my many other interests, such as VAWG, my role as Patron of Respect and Operation Encompass to name but a few.
Vera is a member of the Fabian Society
Following @andyburnham call to end IPP sentences, the government must hear directly from those affected.
What support is needed before, during & after release?
If you’ve served an IPP sentence, share your voice 👇
SUPREME COURT HEARS PALESTINE ACTION APPEAL
The Supreme Court will today begin hearing an appeal into the lawfulness of the Home Secretary’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation in July 2025.
A look at SDS40, the early prison release scheme before this one one, shows 70,066 people let out early & 13,193 recalled, 2892 for further crimes
I sympathise strongly with the victims, but this surely suggests that the rest of the sentence wasn't necessary for the vast majority
Seven prisoners serving indeterminate sentences including three teenagers when sentenced – one as young as 17 years old – have had cases referred to Court of Appeal – total of 32 IPP/DPP referrals to date https://www.thejusticegap.com/seven-more-ipp-prisoners-sent-back-to-appeal-courts/
📢 We're hiring!
We're looking for two solicitors to join our litigation team.
This is a great opportunity to undertake ambitious strategic litigation within a collaborative feminist organisation.
https://ow.ly/fP3K5102pAW
NEWS: The CCRC has referred the indeterminate sentences of seven people convicted between 2005 and 2012 to the Court of Appeal.
They all remain in custody despite none being given a minimum tariff over seven and a half years.
Read more 👉 https://ccrc.gov.uk/news/seven-more-indeterminate-sentences-for-public-protection-ipp-and-dpp-cases-referred-to-the-court-of-appeal-by-the-ccrc/
RT @SkyNews: BREAKING: A man has lost his bid for an injunction against two media outlets to prevent the publication of allegations against…
BIG Thanks to @AldeburghCinema for screening our women in Parliament #Groundbreakers film today. The audience really engaged with our panel discussion with #GillianShephard @Baronessjenkin @ZoeBillingham @VeraBaird Thanks Allen Packwood @ChuArchives @JackieAshley
Still time to get a ticket 2pm today @AldeburghCinema. Great panel disco after our #Groundbreakers film. Do spread the word. See you there. Proceeds @ChuArchives
Guardian headline
'More prisoners recalled to jail than released in England and Wales'
Bad news for Govt trying to cut prison numbers.
But cheering to hear from Nacro that the vast majority of recalls were not for new criminal charges but breaches like missing a probation meeting
Clumsy drafting of the Sentencing Bill may increase the number of women sent to prison Earlier this year, David Gauke’s Independent Sentencing Review was published making a range of recommendations aimed at reducing the size of the prison population, which has caused alarming overcrowding. However, there is a big problem for women with its interpretation in the Sentencing Bill, which has its Second Reading in the House of Lords today (12 November). The very first clause of that Bill presents a very real risk of increasing, rather than reducing, the number of women who are imprisoned for short sentences, despite…
Rianna Cleary, an 18-year-old care leaver, was pregnant when she was remanded to prison, on a charge of robbery. She went into labour when locked in her cell, and, though she rang desperately for help, nobody came. When she rang a second time, the officers turned her bell off. She gave birth to baby Aisha, and had to chew through their umbilical cord, losing copious blood and, eventually, passing out, with Aisha wrapped in a towel beside her. By the next morning when the cell was unlocked, Aisha’s lips were blue. The prison had no baby-sized resuscitation masks, and this…
Prosecuting perpetrators for manslaughter when domestic abuse leads to suicide In January, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) failed in the manslaughter prosecution of Ryan Wellings, a domestic abuser, whose victim, Kiena Dawes, killed herself. It was only thethird prosecution of this kind that the CPS had ever attempted, and they have lost two. That is a shocking record, given the abundant evidence that more women are driven to suicide bytheir abusers than are killed by them [1]. In 2022-23, for instance, a National Police Chief’sCouncil report showed that 80 abuse-related deaths were homicides and 93 were victim suicides. The three…
Our criminal justice system imprisons twice as many women now, as it did in the nineties. No increase in the quantity or gravity of female crime has happened, to justify this. Harsh penal policy, directed at tougher sentencing for men – who are 96% of the prison population – seems simply to have carried women along with it. Yet, it is almost two decades since Baroness Corston recommended, in her seminal Report, that there should be: “a distinct radically different, visibly led, strategic, proportionate, holistic, woman-centred, integrated approach” towards women in prison.” That need for a targeted approach to women…
