In criminal law, we talk a lot about character, but mainly in the context of ‘bad character’, or previous convictions that the prosecution will try to put before a jury to persuade them of the defendant’s guilt.

Despite what might appear to be an obvious legal position, the question is often asked as to whether, despite those laws, it is permissible to ‘smack’ a child.

The government has announced that it intends to bring into force a number of provisions contained in the Housing and Planning Act 2016.

In this article, we consider appeals against sentence from the Crown Court to the Court of Appeal. The appeal process can be complicated depending on the individual case, but here we outline the basics.