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New laws to help tackle knife crime and other issues of public safety – including making it an offence to threaten to kill or rape someone – have been put forward by the Home Affairs Minister.
Deputy Helen Miles is seeking a major overhaul of the Jersey's public order legislation.
Her proposition states that the current law is "outdated" and "does not cater for modern day offences".
It seeks to abolish and replace some customary law and statutory offences and create new ones, to help the police tackle a range of issues including incidents of affray and possession of an offensive weapon.
It could be debated as early as 16 January.
So, what are the new laws being proposed? Express takes a look at some of the key legislative changes...
The draft legislation creates a new offence of threatening to kill, rape or cause serious physical injury.
Jersey presently has no offence of threats to kill, rape or cause serious physical injury.
According the report accompanying the proposition, this means that "such behaviour has to be captured, sometimes inadequately, by other minor offences".
The report also states that the Law Commission of England has recommended that “a reformed statute governing offences of violence should include an offence of threatening to kill, cause serious injury to or rape any person….”.
The offence will be committed if a person makes a threat "with the intention that the recipient should believe that they will genuinely act on it".
It would be punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment and an unlimited fine.
Pictured: A total of 1,052 knife crime incidents were logged by the police between 1 January 2020 and 1 January 2023.
From 2020 to the start of this year there were 1,052 police incident logs where a knife or bladed article was mentioned.
Of those, 20% were subsequently deemed not to be true knife-crime incidents, while 266 (25%) referred to something happening in a public place and 17 (2%) referred to a knife incident at a school.
The draft law will repeal and replace the offence currently included within the Firearms (Jersey) Law 2006, of carrying an offensive weapon in a public place without lawful excuse – and will include school premises.
The new offence has also been extended to cover an article that has “a blade or is sharply pointed".
The proposition explained: "This extension to ‘bladed articles’ brings the criminal law in Jersey into line with that in the UK and Guernsey and is intended to provide greater scope to address knife crime which is sadly becoming more prevalent in Jersey.
"The movement of this offence into the draft Public Order Law would also address a concern that at present, a conviction for carrying a knife unlawfully, may result in a conviction under the Firearms Law, which arguably does not correctly label the offending."
Pictured: The new affray legislation would not require a bystander to be present to constitute an offence.
Jersey's current affray legislation, which tackles unlawful fighting, violence – or a display of force in public that might severely upset bystanders – differs from the English version of the law in that it requires a bystander.
The new statutory offence that Deputy Mile's proposition seeks to introduce would not require any bystanders, which it states "will mean that it can be better applied where the offence is committed in a private place".
It would carry a sentence of up to five years imprisonment and an unlimited fine.
A new offence of "riot" would also be created to replace an existing offence contained in another outdated piece of legislation, which applies to "the gathering of 12 or more citizens or 'under the pretext of, considering, declaring or representing … any alleged grievance’," and does not exempt political protests.
The proposition states that, "understandably", it has not been used to charge anyone for a considerable time.
The new law would define a riot as "an occasion when 12 or more people (the 'rioters') are present and use or threaten to use unlawful violence for a common purpose".
It requires that an observer, which must be a person "of reasonable firmness”, would be in fear for their safety.
It can be committed in a public or private place and carries a penalty of up to 10 years imprisonment and an unlimited fine.
The proposition notes that it is "not necessary to prove either that all 12 were using or threatening violence simultaneously or that all 12 intended to use violence, or were aware that their conduct may be violent".
"This negates the need to prove the intent of all involved," the proposition explains.
The offence of threatening, abusive or disorderly conduct – currently contained within the Crime (Disorderly Conduct and Harassment) (Jersey) Law 2008 – will be repealed, to increase the maximum penalty from three months’ imprisonment and a fine of up to £10,000, to 12 months’ imprisonment and a fine on the same scale.
Pictured: The law would also give Centeniers the power to impose fines summarily at a Parish Hall.
The law would also give Centeniers the power to impose fines summarily at a Parish Hall, for some offences such as being drunk and disorderly, committing a breach of the peace and common assault.
The level of fine that a Centenier could impose is restricted to level 1 (£200), which the proposition states "places a further safeguard on this provision, ensuring that more serious offences are dealt with through the court system at public hearings".
The person being fined would have to accept the decision of the Centenier, or reject the proposal to pay a fine and elect for a trial in the island's criminal Courts.
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