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26 June 2008 / Michael Zander KC
Issue: 7327 / Categories: Features , Legal services , Procedure & practice
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Rejecting Carter

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Professor Michael Zander assesses the 24 main responses to the Gage working group's consultation paper on sentencing

The Sentencing Working Group, chaired by Lord Justice Gage, is currently considering two main proposals: adoption of an American-style grid system that would drastically restrict judicial discretion and establishment of a Sentencing Commission that could be required to tailor sentencing guidelines to fit the size of the prison estate.

Lord Carter, in his report, Securing the Future-Proposals for the Efficient and Sustainable Use of Custody in England and Wales, December 2007 (see NLJ, 1 February 2008, p 162), recommended that these two ideas be considered by a working party which should report “by summer 2008”. (The working group, on a seriously tight schedule, aims to report early in July.)

The working group's consultation paper issued on 31 March called for responses by 2 June. When the secretariat declared the consultation closed, it was stated that there had been 228 responses. This count is, however, misleading since a high proportion were effectively duplicates. Thus, for instance,

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