Not giving up the fight: a review of the Law Commission’s scoping report on non-fatal offences against the person

This article reviews the Commission’s 2015 recommendations on the non-fatal offences against the person. Its analysis focuses on three main pillars: (i) it examines whether the current law in this area is in need of modernisation; (ii) it asks whether the ‘ladder’ of non-fatal offences should be reformed in the manner recommended by the Commission; and (iii) it identifies and elaborates on issues which have not been adequately addressed by the Commission in this project, albeit they constitute integral parts of the offences against the person. This paper suggests that the Commission’s recommendations provide a good starting point, but a more comprehensive review of this area is still required. It is submitted that the reluctance of the Commission to deal in more depth with some fundamental issues, such as the codification of the fault requirements, detracts from the overall strength of this project.