Sentences for robbery will be increased under a new initiative announced by Government in the Throne Speech yesterday.

In addition, the number of people eligible to serve on juries is to be increased and criminals released on bail will have to wear an electronic tagging mechanism.

The three initiatives were all announced by the Governor, Sir Richard Gozney, who said: "The administration of justice requires that our criminal law is amenable to amendments necessary to meet the challenges of prevalent crimes in society.

"Consequently, during this session, amendments to the criminal code will be tabled to redefine the offence of robbery and to increase the penalties for that offence."

In the Criminal Code Act of 1907 robbery is defined as: "Any person who steals anything, and, at or immediately before or immediately after the time of stealing it, uses or threatens to use actual violence to any person or to any property in the presence of any person, in order to obtain or retain the thing stolen or to prevent or overcome resistance to its being stolen, or retained, is guilty of an offence which is called robbery."

Figures released by Police on robberies show reported incidents increased from 140 in 2007 to 183 in 2008. While statistics for 2009 are not complete, as of October 20 there were 115 reported robberies.

The Throne Speech said on jurors: "Amendments to the Jurors Act 1971 will be introduced to increase the pool of persons from whom a jury may be selected."

There are currently several groups of people who are unable to serve on a jury in Bermuda including ex-pats and civil servants.

In an amendment to the Bail Act 2005, mentioned in the Throne Speech, electronic tagging will be permitted for people released on bail.

The United Kingdom and the United States both employ programmes that monitor people on parole or on bail with electronic ankle bracelets.

A base station that communicates with the bracelet is usually placed in the home of the person. Connecting with a phone line allows the base station to alert Police when the person being monitored leaves the area he or she is restricted to or when they violate curfews.

Last night lawyer Larry Scott said that the penalty for robbery was anywhere from one to ten years, depending on the amount of forced used.

"As far as I can tell, the definition of robbery is pretty clear," he added. "I don't know how it could be changed."

He said he believed it was time to change the law to allow people like retired civil servants to serve on a jury and cited, as a reason, the problems with the jury selection for the recent Kellon Hill murder trial, which involved five defendants.

"When you have that many people involved in a trial you end up selecting persons for the jury that were related to the people involved or have some other kind of conflict of interest," said Mr. Scott.

"I don't know what will be done to increase the jury pool but there are a huge number of people that are ineligible to serve and it can cause problems. it should be changed."

Meanwhile, the Governor stated that the Government plans to create a "Visa Waiver Assistance Programme to encourage Bermudians to stay off the list of prohibited persons and moreover provide assistance to those requiring visas to enter our nearest neighbouring country, the United States".

In a statement released yesterday the U.S. Consulate said they welcome the announcement.

"The U.S. Consulate welcomes the Premier's announcement in today's Throne Speech about opening an office to assist Bermudians to apply for waivers of ineligibilities. The Consulate endorses his initiative, which will pass the message, especially among Bermuda's youth, that the consequences of illegal activity are life-long. We look forward to working with this new office."