To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans he has to bring forward proposals to reform joint enterprise legislation in the 2010-15 Parliament.
Answered on
16 October 2014
The law on joint enterprise means that if two or more people share an intention to commit an offence and the offence is subsequently committed, all parties involved can be prosecuted for that offence. They may also be liable for any collateral offences which they foresaw might be committed by other members of the group in the course of putting their plan into effect. But they would not be liable for any offences that were fundamentally different from anything they foresaw or if they had taken steps to withdraw from the enterprise before the plan was carried out.
The law serves a useful purpose in bringing to justice all those who have been involved in the commission of an offence. We therefore have no plans to review or amend it during the life time of this Parliament or to meet with representatives of the campaign group Joint Enterprise: Not Guilty by Association.