System In England Research Articles

Quality standards for digital forensics: Learning from experience in England & Wales

The Forensic Science Regulator has the role of setting quality standards for forensic science in the Criminal Justice System (CJS) in England and Wales. The current requirement is for organisations carrying out digital forensics to gain accreditation to the international standard ISO/IEC 17025 and the Forensic Science Regulator's Codes of Practice and Conduct. The aim of this requirement is to embed a systematic approach to quality, including understanding methods, validating software and systems, understanding risks, ensuring that all involved in the crime scene to court process have the skills and competence they need and the appropriate equipment and environment for the work, and providing ongoing assurance of quality through audit and proficiency tests. However, the challenge of implementing the standards in digital forensics should not be underestimated, particularly in an environment where there is insufficient capacity to meet a growing demand for services in an area of increasing complexity and fragmented delivery. It is therefore timely to review available data to determine the extent to which accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025 is addressing quality issues in digital forensics and consider what changes and resources could be made available to assist with implementation of quality systems.

What price public health? Funding the local public health system in England post-2013

ABSTRACT In April 2013 the local public health function in England was returned from the National Health Service (NHS) to local government, reversing the transfer to the NHS made in 1974 with the abolition of the medical officer of health. Although many in the field had long felt that local government was the appropriate home for public health given its wide-ranging responsibilities for the social determinants of health, the timing was poor. Local government was in the third year of what continued to be an unprecedented ten-year period of austerity imposed by central government with cumulative cuts of the order of 40% for many local authorities. And despite an initial commitment to a ring-fenced public health grant, this grant has been cut each year since 2015–2016 in addition to the wider local authority funding cuts which have had inevitable knock-on effects on the public health function. Crucial public health services such as early years, smoking cessation and sexual health services have all been cut. Despite these cuts the UK government continues to claim a commitment to improving public health and tackling inequalities in health. This study examines the government’s discourse on funding local public health services, and the ways in which it has responded to critics through a detailed documentary analysis of key government white papers, ministerial statements and its responses to criticisms, particularly from parliamentary select committees and professional bodies. The paper concludes by considering the implications for effective local public health action in a national regime of austerity.

Not ‘Very English’ – on the Use of the Polygraph by the Penal System in England and Wales

One of the most striking developments in the penal system in England and Wales is the increasing use of the polygraph by probation services. Despite severe criticism from scientific institutions and academic discourse, the legal order increasingly deploys the long-discredited polygraph in order to extract adverse statements from released offenders. Our article is structured as follows. First, we summarise the statutory and regulatory framework for the current use of the polygraph in the monitoring of sex offenders released on licence, and the proposed expansion of the polygraph testing regime as set out in the Domestic Abuse Bill and the Counter-Terrorism and Sentencing Bill respectively. We then review our findings in respect of governing policies and procedures uncovered by our FOI-based research, highlighting the concerning lack of consistency in respect of both practice and procedure. In the subsequent sections we set out the main arguments deployed by polygraph proponents, and posit our view that none of these arguments can withstand scrutiny. We conclude by proposing a moratorium on any further use of the polygraph by the State, in order to thoroughly evaluate its effect on the integrity of the legal order, human rights and, more generally, the Rationalist aspirations of the penal system. In addition, and given already existing law, we propose a process of independent oversight and scrutiny of the use of the polygraph in licence recall decisions and other situations impacting individual rights, especially police investigations triggered by polygraph test results.

Rent, Taxes, and Political Participation: Long-Term Effects of Urban Autonomy in Recent Studies in Development Economics. Article 2

The article (for Part 1 see ONS 2020, no. 2) presents a review of modern economic literature on the link between effective public administration, fiscal capacity and the tradition of parliamentary constraint on the executive. The article suggests an extension of the scope of the debate on the “Little Divergence&8j1; between North-Western Europe and the rest of the continent to include the North Italian maritime republics that built a system of government debt resembling public debt systems in England and the Dutch republic and correlating with both economic growth and strong parliament.Summing up recent economic research the article highlights an increasing interest in political aspects of public finance as a key factor of state capacity

Towards Increasing Trust In Expert Evidence Derived From Malware Forensic Tools

Following a series of high profile miscarriages of justice in the UK linked to questionable expert evidence, the post of the Forensic Science Regulator was created in 2008. The main objective of this role is to improve the standard of practitioner competences and forensic procedures. One of the key strategies deployed to achieve this is the push to incorporate a greater level of scientific conduct in the various fields of forensic practice. Currently there is no statutory requirement for practitioners to become accredited to continue working with the Criminal Justice System of England and Wales. However, the Forensic Science Regulator is lobbying the UK Government to make this mandatory. This paper focuses upon the challenge of incorporating a scientific methodology to digital forensic investigations where malicious software (‘malware’) has been identified. One aspect of such a methodology is the approach followed to both select and evaluate the tools used to perform dynamic malware analysis during an investigation. Based on the literature, legal, regulatory and practical needs we derive a set of requirements to address this challenge. We present a framework, called the ‘Malware Analysis Tool Evaluation Framework’ (MATEF), to address this lack of methodology to evaluate software tools used to perform dynamic malware analysis during investigations involving malware and discuss how it meets the derived requirements.

The Reform of Intelligence Police and the Criminal Intelligence System in England

현재 수사권조정을 비롯한 형사사법 개혁논의과정에서 정보경찰 통제시스템개선 필요성이 제기되고 있다. 이와 관련하여 영국(잉글랜드 및 웨일즈)은 정보기관과 수사기관의 정보수집생산 직무와 수사직무를 각각 분리 구분하여, 정보기관은 수사기관을 비롯한 법집행기관의 직무에 필요한 정보를 수집제공하고, 필요한 수사는 수사기관에 의뢰하도록 하는 한편, 수사기관의 정보수집 직무에 대한 통제제도를 다양하게 운영하고 있는 주요 사례다. 영국은 공안정보기관 및 범죄정보기관이 정보수집대상 범죄 및 안보사안에 따라 분리운영하고, 국가안보관련 정보기관 또한 국내 정보기관과 해외 정보기관으로 분리하는 정책과 제도를 시행하면서 정보기관과 수사기관의 협업체계 및 정보기관에 대한 통제체계를 갖추고 있다. 영국 경찰의 정보기반 경찰활동이 시사하는 바는 과학적 증거와 자료, 평가가능한 성과를 중시하는 치안정책 방향이다. 가장 중요하게는 경찰활동의 정당성에 대한 신뢰의 문제다. 정보수집생산 기능과 이를 수행하는 기관의 권한은 정책적 현안에 대해서는 집중, 체계적 구조에 있어서는 분산이 바람직한 방향이다. 효과적 집중과 체계적 분산을 통해 정책적 효과성과 민주적 통제확보 모두 가능하게 되기 때문이다. 기관과 체계의 정당성은 효과성과 통제성에 대한 신뢰 위에 비로소 구축된다.Criminal investigation agencies in Korea, the Police, Prosecution Service, and National Intelligence Service have had both powers on criminal intelligence and public intelligence, which is one of the criminal justice reform agenda by the current administration. While the interior intelligence functions by the Prosecution Service and National Intelligence Service is on the way of abolition, the powers on ‘public security intelligence’ of the Police is to be reformed. According to the Article 2 of the Police Powers Act, the Police has powers to gather, produce and distribute public security intelligence. From the point of comparative law and policy, the system of criminal intelligence in England and Wales shows one of rational models for the reform of intelligence police powers and policing. In principle, English system consists of criminal intelligence agencies and public agencies which provides checks and balance, and also cooperation between relevant institutions. Thus, the intelligence system guarantees both effective control and efficient intelligence operations. Further, intelligence-led policing is helpful in securing public confidence in criminal investigation agencies. The Police Reform Commission of the 2018 provides recommendations on the reform of intelligence policing. The powers and institutional structure should be controlled for human rights protection, and also be supported for public safety.

The Growth of Multi-Academy Trusts in England: Emergent Structures and the Sponsorship of Underperforming Schools

In England, schools are able to take on academy status, which is intended by the central government to give them greater autonomy (DfE, 2018). Groups of academies can form multi-academy trusts (MATs), which typically grow in size with additional schools becoming academies and joining. One mechanism for MAT growth is sponsorship, which occurs when an underperforming school is required to become an academy and to join a MAT to facilitate its improvement. It was to explore the emerging patterns of MATs and their operation, especially in relation to sponsorship, that the research we report here was carried out. The research was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, we sought to establish the emerging patterns of MATs that sponsor underperforming schools. In the second phase, we interviewed MAT chief executive officers (CEOs) to further explore emerging patterns of MATs, the factors affecting the growth of MATs and the nature of sponsorship. Our analysis shows the development of a complex and potentially unsustainable state schooling system in England, managed by Regional School Commissioners (RSCs) and dependent on the altruistic values and motivations of CEOs of MATs to improve schools that are underperforming.

“Roll back the years”: A study of grandparent special guardians' experiences and implications for social work policy and practice in England

AbstractGrowing numbers of grandparent special guardians (GSGs) are assuming responsibility for increasing numbers of children in the care system in England. Special guardianship arrangements are increasingly used as a permanency option as they allow children to remain in their kinship networks rather than in local authority care or be adopted; yet there is a scarcity of research on GSG carers' experiences. This paper reports a small qualitative research study where 10 sets of grandparents were interviewed to explore their journey to becoming GSGs and to theorize their subsequent experiences. Two themes emerge. First, experiences of the assessment process are elaborated, decisions often being made at a time of family crisis, impacting on GSGs: financial, employment, and relational. Second, GSGs' experiences of managing often challenging relationships and contact arrangements between the grandchildren and the parents reveal three main relationship management approaches emerging: containing‐flexible, containing‐controlled, and uncontained/defeated approaches. Anthropological concepts of affinity help theorize the GSGs' ambivalent responses to becoming carers in later life, enabling reconfigured kinship relationships in new family forms. Family policy and social work practice is critiqued as GSGs appear often left alone to “roll back the years,” to heal previous harms done to the grandchildren who end up in their care.

On the capitalisation of schools in England

This article outlines some ideas that can be used in a project of educational subversion that seeks to relate particular educational phenomena to the constitution of capitalist society. These phenomena are elements of what I have previously (RIKOWSKI, 2003b; 2005c) called the ‘business takeover of schools’. Indeed, I have never really provided a sustained account of what I mean by this term, and how it relates to other concepts such as privatisation and commodification. Thus, I shall do so now in the context of certain developments in the schools system in England – which has been an interest of mine since 1997.

Multilingual communication under the radar: how multilingual children challenge the dominant monolingual discourse in a super-diverse, Early Years educational setting in England

ABSTRACTThe operant “one nation – one language” model in Western culture has resulted in linguistic hegemony being almost universally presented as an uncontentious reality. This article accepts Foucault’s challenge to deconstruct this officially sanctioned “truth” by looking at how the educational system in England legitimises the discourse that speaking English is normal, marginalising multilingual practices. Data is drawn from a year-long study of thirty “super-diverse” children in an inner-city school in the north of England. The research presents language portraits in which the children demonstrate they have internalised the rhetoric that English should be spoken in school. These are contrasted with ethnographic observations which provide co-constructed researcher-pupil cartoons representing social interactions in a range of contexts. The illustrations demonstrate how the children challenge the idealisation of English language in school by operating spatial agency in which they seek (and find) opportunities in peripheral and liminal spaces to speak their own language.

Born into Care: characterising newborn babies and infants in care proceedings in England and Wales

Background/rationaleNations with advanced child protection systems place considerable emphasis on the developmental salience of infancy. However, this emphasis is not matched by any differentiated analysis of the timing of family court intervention in the lives of infants or the final legal order outcomes of these cases. This presentation shares findings from the first ever population profiling study of infants subject to care proceedings within the family justice system in England and Wales.
 AimTo estimate the proportion of all infant care proceedings cases issued within 7 days and 4 weeks of birth and describe case and infant characteristics; to calculate incidence rates over time and by local authority and family court region; to describe and compare legal order outcomes according to age.
 Methods/approachData was extracted from case management records produced by the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) England and Wales. Records were first restructured to link infants to legal order outcome data and birth mother records. Incidence rates were calculated using ONS mid-year population estimates and annual live births. Within the SAIL Databank, Welsh infant records were linked to birth registration and community child health data to produce a fuller picture of infant characteristics in Wales.
 ResultsThe cohort we created comprised all infants recorded as subjects within care proceedings in England (2007/08-2016/17) and Wales (2011/12-2018/19). The study captured the high proportion of infant cases that are issued at/close to birth, but also marked regional and local authority variation in incidence rates.
 ConclusionHigh rates of adoption, particularly for babies born to mothers without a previous family court history, have prompted calls for new preventative solutions. The President of the Family (Court) Division in England has initiated a review of legal proceedings at birth.

Building a birth cohort of births and their outcome in England and Wales using linkage of administrative data

Background/rationaleWhen a baby is born in England and Wales, the event is recorded in several separate systems, each of which contains different data items. Data recorded at birth registration are mainly socio-demographic, while some different data items are recorded when the birth is notified to the NHS. The data recorded in hospital systems in England and in Wales about the majority of babies who are born in NHS maternity units are largely clinical.
 Over a ten year period, a series of three collaborative projects have linked data about 7,013,804 births registered in 2005-14 to establish a birth cohort for use in research and national statistics and to quality assure the linkage. Data about outcomes of birth in terms of death and subsequent readmissions to hospital have also been linked in. The linked data are held in the Secure Research Service at the Office for National Statistics.
 The data have been used for analyses of pattern of births by time of day, day of the week and season and in relation to obstetric intervention in labour and birth. They are now being used by other researchers.
 strong>Challenges encounteredThere were major problems in accessing NHS data for England, compounded by intermittent availability of funding.
 Lessons learnedDespite the many challenges, it proved feasible to construct a linked birth cohort which has increased the scope and range of national maternity data for England and Wales. NHS Digital’s opt-outs are causing gaps in national data and could invalidate linkage.
 RecommendationsThe cohort should be updated with data for more recent years. Linkage should be undertaken within ONS by teams who are not subject to NHS Digital’s opt-out policy. Data access policies should reflect the higher public trust in research uses of NHS data compared to commercial uses.

Making time for food when ‘doing time’; how enhanced status prisoners counter the indignity of prison foodways

In contemporary neo-liberal societies, forms of responsible individualism and approaches to everyday foodways that reify healthy home-cooked food prepared from scratch, eaten together around a table are imbued with high cultural capital. What are the implications of this for criminalised individuals incarcerated in a prison system in England and Wales, that works with extremely low budgets, makes heavy use of pre-packaged convenience food and serves food to prisoners in their cells? Indeed, findings from Her Majesty's Inspectorate for Prison Report on food (2016:13), claims that ‘the quantity and quality of the food provided [in prison] is insufficient, and the conditions in which it is served and eaten undermine respect for prisoners’ dignity’, which they argue has implications in terms of increasing the marginalisation and alienation of the prison population from the ‘free community’. In this paper I draw on data from 39 in depth interviews at a resettlement scheme in England, conducted with 18 prisoners released on temporary licence from the resettlement wing of a closed and segregated Category C male prison. The enhanced status of prisoners and the benefits of being on the resettlement wing affords opportunities in relation to everyday foodways not available to regular prisoners. Their narrative accounts of prison foodways exemplify some of the HMIP findings and demonstrate how an enhanced prisoner status can counter notions of food as threat and poison, through systems of bartering, solidarity and recompense.

Delivering Justice

The legal system needs to slay some myths. Focusing on access to justice avoids the critical issue of whether justice is actually delivered, in enough individual cases and as a whole. Retaining an adversarial dispute resolution model avoids the reality that it cannot work absent a consistently reliable source of funding, and more investigative models are cheaper and quicker. Focusing on deterrence avoids the fact that the empirical evidence that imposing deterrent sanctions has at best limited effect of the future behaviour of people or organisations, and that those regulators and organisations that have based their approaches on behavioural psychology and ethical cultures are notably effective in affecting change and future behaviour. In short, for all these reasons, our approach to dispute resolution is now out-of-date. There has been diversification in techniques (mediation and other ADR techniques in addition to adjudication), in technologies (online process, use of artificial intelligence), in pathways (Ombudsmen have replaced lawyers and courts in consumer- trader disputes, and are set to do so in the property sector; new regulatory bodies have been created for disputes involving small businesses), and in functions (Ombudsmen and regulators use data from inquiries and disputes as tools of market surveillance and behavioural intervention). The reality is that we need a new start to look objectively at considerable diversity and to design a new system that integrates all techniques, technologies, pathways and functions into a single coordinated system. This article summarises a recent holistic review of the system in England (and partly Wales) and outlines its conclusions.

The unspoken power of collage? Using an innovative arts-based research method to explore the experience of struggling as a teacher

This article reports on the methodological approach taken in a doctoral study that explores what it means to be struggling as a teacher. Participants were established and experienced teachers and leaders in the secondary school system in England. A particular form of collage – where materials are placed rather than stuck – was used within the context of a research interview. Arts-based methods such as collage are gaining in popularity as they stimulate visual rather than linguistic thinking and offer the opportunity to express experiences as holistic, non-linear metaphors. Collage also has revelatory potential as it helps uncover that which participants cannot necessarily express in words alone. The author presents the analytical challenges of intermingling the verbal and visual data in her study by discussing the collages created by two participants. An analysis of those collages shows that factors influencing struggling can be both internal and external. Struggling was found to be experienced as a temporary fractured state. Struggling was expressed by participants as heightened bodily tensions with a predominantly negative emotional tone; it can also involve a damaged self-view and a reduced sense of controllability, and may lead to impaired performance.

Governance Through Diversion in Neoliberal Times and the Possibilities for Transformative Social Justice

Over the last decade, the dramatic increase in the number of young people diverted from formal processing through the youth justice system in England and Wales, and the equally sharp drop in the rate of youth custody suggest that the neoliberal formula for the penal governance of young people who offend has been undergoing significant reshaping. This article draws on research which interrogates the changes that are currently taking place, particularly the proliferation of “out of court” community-based measures of diversion and offense resolution, to develop a more fine-tuned conceptualization of the complexities of neoliberal youth penality. We base our findings principally on England and Wales, although it is likely that our analysis is applicable in other settings. With the extensive reduction in the capacity of the state to exert direct measures of institutional and community-based coercion, we seek to identify other, less overt processes that also aspire to maintain order and reproduce social relations favorable to the neoliberal project. In lieu of ending on a purely pessimistic note, we conclude with a brief outline of the potential for alternative, progressive strategies that seek to challenge rather than simply modify or incorporate previous modes of regulation and control.

Voice, views and the UNCRC Articles 12 and 13

The voice of children aged 4 to 8 years is seldom heard in research circles, within the constraints of high-pressure academic model which is the current education system in England. Children are rarely listened to but expected to listen in the current normative societal cycle. This deficiency of active listening as an everyday occurrence impacts on children’s Mental Health. This article will give reference to an original empirical study, Hear Me and Listen. This study carried out in 2018 highlights the minimalistic practice of listening to children aged 4 to 8 years in the everyday. The research method used consisted of the Mosaic Approach. This approach provides various avenues for communication aside from the verbal. Data collected were analysed through a thematic approach. Themes which came from analysis included ‘This Is Me’, ‘Relationships’, ‘Environment’, ‘Curriculum’ and ‘Practitioners’. This article draws on this analysis and concludes that a change in the normative discourse of ‘hearing’ and not acting to one of ‘active listening’ and supporting is a path worth mapping.

Ensuring Archaeology in the Planning System Delivers Public Benefit

Archaeologists in the UK work in a variety of structures, but all archaeology is for the benefit of the public. Since 1990 the majority of archaeological work has been undertaken as part of the planning process. A complex system has evolved which attempts to deliver wider public benefit. There are differences between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, but the underlying principles are broadly the same across the UK. In 2020 radical changes were proposed to the planning system in England which could potentially impact on both the archaeological profession and the public benefits it generates. This paper outlines the evolution and operation of the current UK system with particular reference to England, and highlights some changes that the new proposals could make to the status quo. Some structural issues are highlighted which will need to be overcome for archaeologists to improve things for themselves and for the society they serve in the future.

Janet Weston. Medicine, the Penal System and Sexual Crimes in England, 1919–1960s: Diagnosing Deviance.

Janet Weston. Medicine, the Penal System and Sexual Crimes in England, 1919–1960s: Diagnosing Deviance.

Homocide co-victims: confidence in the criminal justice system

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to address the phenomenology of family members of homicide victims; known as “co-victims”. In particular, co-victims experiences of the criminal justice system (CJS) in England and Wales.Design/methodology/approachIn 2018, 10 kV methodology facilitated an electronic-focus group. Anonymously, volunteers from families of homicide victims responded to key questions in a session entitled “a conversation which matters: confidence”. The thematic analysis presents the responses to three questions around “what works” and “what does not” in CJS practice.FindingsThe responses indicate four themes in relation to confidence building: communication and information; outcome; honesty and fairness; and family support. Responses indicate three themes in relation to what the CJS does well: family liaison officers, homicide detectives and court services. Responses indicate three themes in relation to what is not working: court proceedings, police budget cuts and preventative interventions.Research limitations/implicationsThe research considers benefits and limitations of methodology and makes suggestions for how these facets could be addressed by future research.Practical implicationsThe research findings reveal good practice and points for attention to support confidence building in the CJS. Amongst other considerations, the work advances CJS practical good practice principles from the perspective of co-victims: education, interpersonal relations, working together, communication and justice.Originality/valueFindings are of value to CJS policy makers, training and education for co-victim support, police and academics.