Fact: Labour have created 3000 new criminal offences. Does anybody know any of them?

Question

As ignorance of the law is no defence, don't you find it scary that apart from the thousands of old criminal offences that we don't know about, there are now 3000 new ones. It is impossible for anyone to know what they are, so anybody could get arrested at anytime without having the faintest idea that they broke the law. What do you think some of these new criminal offences are?

Voice of Reason. I didn't say 3000 new laws, I said 3000 new criminal offences. The laws you mention do not contain any criminal offences. Na na na

Answer 1

The more surreal offences make it illegal for anyone to enter the hull of the Titanic without permission from the Secretary of State or to cause a nuclear explosion.

Meanwhile, it is also a criminal offence to sell grey squirrels, impersonate a traffic warden or fail to nominate a neighbour to turn off a noisy burglar alarm.

The tally is all the more extraordinary as it comes at a time when violent crime is soaring and Britain's prison population is bursting at the seams.

The 3,000-plus offences fuelled criticism that Labour is meddling in the everyday lives of citizens - from restricting freedom of speech to planning to issue identity cards to all adults.

In total, the Government has brought in 3,023 offences since May 1997. They include 1,169 introduced by primary legislation - debated in Parliament - and 1,854 by secondary legislation such as statutory instruments and orders in council.

Labour is now creating offences at twice the rate of the previous Tory government and the rate at which laws have reached the statute book is speeding up every year that Mr Blair remains in Downing Street.

In 1998, Labour's first full year in power, 160 new offences passed into legislation. But this has risen to 346 in 2000 and 527 in 2005.

This provides a devastating insight into the real legacy of nine years of New Labour government - a frenzied approach to law-making, thousands of new offences, an illiberal belief in heavy-handed regulation, an obsession with controlling the minutiae of everyday life.

'The result? A country less free than before, and a marked erosion of the trust which should exist between the Government and the governed.'

The Home Office, which has produced 60 Bills over a hyperactive nine-year period, is responsible for 430 of the new offences.

The flood of Bills compares with one criminal justice Bill per decade for much of the 20th century and has brought pleas for a period of calm from the department.

A previous Home Office Business Plan even reveals that one of the department's main target is to increase the 'volume of new legislation'.

The Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said: 'This Government's obsession with spin and bluster over real delivery is typified by the amount of new legislation and initiatives they constantly produce, now we see they actually have set themselves a target for delivering headline grabbing initiatives. It's unbelievable. 'Often the problem is not lack of an appropriate power or law but the lack of Government will to enforce it.'

The astonishing new figures show that almost every Whitehall department has found new things to outlaw.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has brought in 640 new offences, such as banning the import of Brazil nuts, chillis, pistachios from Iran and potatoes from Poland.

The Department for Trade and Industry has produced another 592, and the Foreign Office and the Office for the Deputy Prime Minister 277 each.

Downing Street last night said it had simply 'modernised' many ancient laws - some of which date back to Medieval times.

A spokesman said: 'Crime has fallen by 35 per cent since Labour came to power precisely because we have given the police and criminal justice system the modern laws they have asked for to tackle crime effectively.

'Among the offences we've modernised are new laws to tackle sex offences, domestic violence, antisocial behaviour and knife and gun crime.'

Shami Chakrabarti, the director of human rights group Liberty, said the figures demonstrated that politicians were becoming addicted to law making'.

She said: 'The next time the cry goes up to legislate our way out of a crisis, a deep breath from the Home Office might just be more inspiring than further statutory graffiti.'

Enver Solomon, deputy director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King's College London, said: 'It has become a New Labour trademark to criminalise a range of social harms which would be more effectively dealt with away from the clutches of the criminal justice agencies.'

Answer 2

Since 1997 they have created over 3,000 new criminal offences, a new offence for almost EVERY DAY they have been in office. From the detention of terrorist suspects without trial to ASBOs, parenting orders to race crimes, the Government's legislation has touched thousands of lives across the whole of British society. This unprecedented level of law-making has been consistently criticised as knee-jerk and counter-productive, not least by the police and judges charged with its enforcement...

Answer 3

I don't know of 'them' but I've been badly worked over by two of them so far. I have no record, not even a parking ticket...but they brought in the maximum 13 week retention period for contractors which ensured my design job (30k) went down the pan and I've been forced to go onto a NMW production line ever since...and now, they are banning 'swords' (and this affects re-enactors, martial artists and everyone associated, like fencers and even actors, and the list goes on...) (a small boy was arrested for brandishing a sausage last night...very Monty Python.) So they take off me my job and force me into poverty and now they are taking my hobbies off me. So I've filed a visa application and am migrating to the US, where prices are 50% of the UK prices, wages are 200% the UK wages, and I can regain my design career and also practice my sword art. I will be sending my ripped up labor party membership card and 'subject' passport (when I get my green card) to parliament with a large pot of vaseline.

Answer 4

Smoking in public , To stand outside number 10 complaining , Fox Huntings , One is no longer allowed to be a terrorist , the use of mobile phones while driving ,

there's just a few , oh so sorry , got to go now , just been arrested , help I don't know what for , the nice police man is saying " for taking the piss " out of the govenment , and all I said was he left months ago

Answer 5

The latest is the best so far - comes into force today (23rd)

Police now have power to order you to leave an area and enforce a ban on you entering that area if they suspect you of being - drunk or sober but might get drunk later on. They are also allowed to take your photograph or video you for later use. The fine for refusing any of this is up to £2,500.

You may only be out shopping but you can still be banned from town centres on suspicion.

Answer 6

Failure to attend a drug treatment assessment after testing positive on arrest (Drugs Act 2005). If you don't attend, even if what you were originally arrested for is dropped, you can be prosecuted.

Breach of an ASBO (however, you would know if you were on an ASBO and have been informed that breach would be a criminal act). Same goes for breach of Sex Offender Prevention Order.

Answer 7

Blimey, there are some really paranoid people out there aren't there. How about these (off the top of my head):

various money laundering regulations
proceeds of crime laws
laws to reform the House of Lords
Law to prevent spoiler candidates in elections (like the old Literal Democrats)
sex offenders register
Laws to enable devolution
Laws which set up the Northern Ireland Assembly
Law to ban people getting pleasure from watching a wild mammal being ripped apart by a pack of hounds
ASBOs

Answer 8

Where does this statistic come from?

I bet I know a few of them but it would be hard to pick them out of the thousands that we have to deal with on a daily basis.

Can't say I agree with them all though.

Answer 9

3000 really, where is the info from?.

I work in a crime desk as well as a special constable, i am not sure i have seen 3000 added??

Answer 10

One of them is that you cannot enter the wreck of the Titanic without permission of the British Government!!!