2 days Ago By Caitlin Doherty
The Justice Secretary is “considering all her options” when it comes to the Sentencing Council, a Home Office minister has suggested. Dame Angela Eagle said Shabana Mahmood is “considering the best way to make progress” after the body refused a request to reconsider its guidance on how offenders from minorities should be sentenced. The Government is set to introduce a law change in Parliament to override the new guidance for judges, which says a pre-sentence report will usually be needed before handing out punishment for someone of an ethnic, cultural or faith minority, alongside other groups such as young adults aged 18 to 25, women and pregnant women.
Critics fear the change could discriminate against those who do not fit into these groups. Asked whether pre-sentence reports will be removed for all people the Council suggested could need one, asylum minister Dame Angela told Times Radio: “The Secretary of State for Justice is looking at that. “She’s talked to the Sentencing Council, she’s now considering the best way to make progress on the situation that we find ourselves in.
” Asked whether the Sentencing Council should be got rid of altogether, she said: “I’m sure that she’s considering all her options when it comes to this particular quango.” The latest guidance from the council, due to come into force on April 1, includes new principles for courts to follow when imposing community and custodial sentences, including whether to suspend jail time. A former lord chief justice of England and Wales has said that the “last thing anyone wants” is politicians being involved in deciding individual sentences, but also said judges would not be wanting to set policy.
Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It’s obviously for Parliament to decide what the law is, but these are difficult issues. “The last thing anyone would want is politicians involved in deciding individual sentences. “And the last thing the judges would want is deciding ultimately on penal policy that is for the Government.
” The new Bill set to be introduced to Parliament will have to go through the usual parliamentary process of being scrutinised in both House of Commons and House of Lords before it can become law, though ministers hope this can be done swiftly. Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick has said that there should be “guidelines” provided to judges and magistrates on sentencing, but there should also be “a degree of ministerial oversight”. The senior Tory, whose party was in Government when the guidelines were first approved told Times Radio: “I think you do want to have guidelines provided to judges and magistrates so that there is a very high degree of consistency across the country in the way in which sentences are passed down.
“And so it’s right that they provide guidance and that they keep that under continuous review. “It is also important, however, that there is a degree of ministerial oversight over that. “So if they stray into policy and political decisions of great importance to the justice system, as has happened in this case, ministers such as the Justice Secretary can intervene.
” He criticised Ms Mahmood over the weekend for acting “too little too late” on the sentencing guidelines. Mr Jenrick recently attempted to introduce a private members’ Bill in the Commons which would have prevented the Sentencing Council from issuing guidelines without the consent of the Justice Secretary The Bill was denied a second reading debate in the Commons on a sitting Friday, and Mr Jenrick blamed the Government for blocking it. Jack Straw, who was justice secretary when the Sentencing Council was created in 2010, has backed Ms Mahmood in taking “steps to correct the error” of the guidelines.
He told the Policy Exchange think tank: “It is clear that the Government will need to take steps to correct the error. “Given the cross-party support for this to be resolved, as shown by the position of the shadow secretary of state, Robert Jenrick, I hope that this can be done quickly.”.
