The guideline, ‘Imposition of community and custodial sentences’, required judges and magistrates to consult a pre-sentence report before sentencing someone of an ethnic or religious minority, or a young adult, abuse survivor or pregnant woman.
Shabana Mahmood, the Lord Chancellor, has drafted a short Bill in response, stating ‘specific cohorts’ should not be singled out for ‘differential treatment’.
The stand-off between the Lord Chancellor and Sentencing Council came to an end one day before the guideline was due to take effect on 1 April. The Sentencing Council agreed to ‘delay the in-force date of the guideline pending such legislation taking effect’.
It stated it ‘remains of the view that its guideline… as drafted is necessary and appropriate.
‘The Lord Chancellor and the Chairman of the Sentencing Council met this morning. At that meeting, the Lord Chancellor indicated her intention to introduce legislation imminently that would have the effect of rendering the section on “cohorts” in the guideline unlawful.’
The Sentencing Council, an independent statutory body, has robustly defended its guideline throughout the row, which erupted after shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said the guideline made a custodial sentence less likely for someone from an ethnic or religious minority. Both Mahmood and the prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, urged the Council to drop the guideline, but it refused.
In a letter to Mahmood last week, Lord Justice William Davis, the Council’s chair, argued the guideline had been misunderstood. He highlighted judges ‘must do all that they can’ to avoid a difference in outcome based on ethnicity.
‘The crucial point is that a pre-sentence report will provide information to the judge or magistrate,’ he wrote. ‘It will not determine the sentence.’
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