Since the late 1990s, over 3,000 new criminal offences have been introduced in England and Wales. More than half of these are minor ‘regulatory offences’ created by a range of government agencies and bodies with law-making powers. In August 2010 the Law Commission issued a consultation paper (Criminal Liability in Regulatory Contexts) raising concerns about the growth of such offences and recommending that civil law penalties be used as an alternative. The Commission estimates that using alternative civil powers could save up to £11 million a year.
In any legal system there is a need to keep existing laws under review to ensure that they are appropriate to the needs of society. Without such a process law can quickly become outdated, unnecessarily complex and unjust. Neither Parliament (although ultimately responsible for law reform) nor the courts are equipped or suited to the task of systematically reviewing the law in general and it was for this reason that there was a call for the creation of a specialist independent body.
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