Solicitors are being urged to submit evidence to a landmark review of joint enterprise amid long-standing concerns that the common law doctrine unfairly targets young black men and people from other minority groups.

The Westminster Commission on Joint Enterprise, set up last year by the all-party parliamentary group on miscarriages of justice, is probing the law, practice and policy of joint enterprise, which allows multiple people to be prosecuted and punished for the same crime.

The commission is being overseen by Labour peer Lord Woodley (the trade unionist Tony Woodley) and co-chaired by law lecturers Dr Louise Hewitt, founder of the Innocent Project London, and Dr Bharat Malkani, a specialist on race and justice. The commission has been holding oral evidence sessions but is now seeking written evidence on how joint enterprise on the purpose and effectiveness of joint enterprise, how it is applied in practice and perceived benefits of the current legal framework.

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‘This can also extend to concerns raised about joint enterprise, which include proportionality and overcriminalisation, as well as the ways in which the doctrine has been used against ethnic minorities, women, children, and those who are neurologically diverse,’ the APPG said.

According to data analysis of a Crown Prosecution Service joint enterprise pilot in 2023, black people represent 4% of the population but 30% of defendants in the CPS caseload. White people represent 82% of the population but 39% of defendants in the CPS caseload.

Labour MP Kim Johnson sought an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill last year to tighten up the law on joint enterprise, so that only those who make a ‘significant contribution’ are held criminally liable. Johnson said: ‘This is an opportunity for the commission to hear from all stakeholders – academics, policymakers, legal professionals, campaigners, community groups, and those with lived experience, including victims of the injustice of joint enterprise as well as those who have been victims of crime.’

Submissions should be no more than two sides of A4 and emailed to commission co-chair Louise Hewitt at Louise.Hewitt@greenwich.ac.uk by 1 July.

 

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