The Law Commission has been tasked with making recommendations for changes to the criminal appeal system. This is the most wide ranging review of this area for some thirty years.
5KBW’s Criminal Appeals Unit submitted a detailed response to the consultation paper. The paper, written by Paul Taylor KC, Mark Heywood KC, Phoebe Bragg, Ria Banerjee, Harriet Palfreman and Aamina Khalid can be found here.
The opening paragraph of our response reads:
“It is difficult to overstate the importance and potential impact of the Law Commission’s Criminal Appeal Project. The decisions in Andrew Malkinson, the Horizon appeals and Peter Sullivan are just the most recent in a long list of miscarriages of justice that demonstrate the desperate need for substantial change to the criminal appeal system. As Chris Henley KC wrote “Miscarriages of justice disfigure the lives of all connected to the case and make the public generally less safe.”
In addition to the Response, Paul Taylor KC, the head of our Criminal Appeals Unit, hosted a podcast last year, Time for Change…The Law Commission Criminal Appeals Project in which he discussed the project with Professor Penney Lewis (Law Commissioner for the Criminal Appeals Project), Matt Foot (co-director of APPEAL), and Dr. Hannah Quirk (Reader in Criminal Law at Kings College London, and editor of the Criminal Law Review.) Topics discussed include the safety test, the CCRC, substantial injustice, and compensation for miscarriages of justice. Click here to listen.
In May 2025 we hosted a seminar The Future of Criminal Appeals – Time for significant change? Attended by senior judiciary, academics, and solicitors, papers were presented by Professor Lewis, Paul Taylor KC, Dr. Hannah Quirk and Mark Heywood KC.
Paul Taylor KC assisted the Bar Council Law Reform Group’s response to the Issues Paper and most recently the Consultation Paper.
