Longer sentences for sex offenders

Sex offenders and violent criminals will be locked up until they are no longer a risk under new open-ended jail terms outlined today.

The new sentences will mean the most dangerous criminals would have to serve a minimum term and would then only be released if the Parole Board was "completely satisfied" they were safe to be supervised in the community.

The radical step was disclosed as part of the overhaul of the justice system announced by Home Secretary David Blunkett today.

It would mean that offenders like paedophile Sidney Cooke, who was freed even though he admitted he was likely to offend again, would potentially stay behind bars for life.

At the other end of the scale, the Government will reshape sentences for less serious offenders so they spend shorter times in jail and move into proper supervision in the community.

Today's White Paper, Justice For All, is the culmination of more than two years' work by Lord Justice Auld and Home Office officials.

Other key proposals include:

? Judges getting new powers to tell juries about defendants' previous convictions at the start of a trial

? Scrapping the double jeopardy rule which protects acquitted defendants from a second trial on the same charges

? Making defence lawyers disclose evidence before a trial in the same way prosecutors must

? Cash penalties for lawyers if they delay cases by errors or omissions

? Letting judges sit without a jury in complex fraud cases

? Doubling magistrates' powers to jail from six to 12 months with the possibility of a further extension allowing them to jail for 18 months.

Tony Blair's aim is to "drag the legal system from the 19th to the 21st century" to restore the public's confidence in British justice. Only nine out of every 100 recorded crimes ends in a conviction.

The reforms aim to "re-balance the criminal justice system in favour of the victim and the community so as to reduce crime and bring more offenders to justice".

Police only detect 23 per cent of recorded crime and 60,000 cases a year, 13 per cent of the total, collapse or are dropped when they get to court. The reform package aims to tackle the culture of delay in the courts which, according to the Audit Commission, costs more than £80 million a year and means offenders "evade justice".

Typical problems include a victim or witness refusing to testify, prosecutors failing to get their case ready in time or large sections of evidence being hidden from juries because they are ruled inadmissible on technical grounds.

Controversial plans to scrap the right to trial by jury for many offences - twice rejected by Parliament - have been dropped.

Mr Blunkett was left in no doubt today that he faces a huge fight over the reforms, but the Government is convinced that criminal trials are an uneven contest where the defence outguns the prosecution and uses technicalities to stop a genuine test of evidence.

The White Paper says: "An individual is innocent until proven guilty and the prosecution must prove their case against the defendant beyond reasonable doubt. But the system should not become a game where delay and obstruction can be used as a tactic to avoid a rightful conviction."