‘Two-tier justice’ farce: Judges only told sentencing guidelines have been postponed two hours AFTER hearings began, MPs told_Nhy
The ‘two-tier justice’ row descended into farce today as it emerged judges were only told controversial guidelines had been postponed after court hearings began.
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick told MPs there was a ‘very real prospect’ that offenders were handled under the discredited Sentencing Council rules this morning.
An email from the Sentencing Council ‘pausing’ the guidelines went out at noon, two hours after courts began sitting, he told the House of Commons.
Mr Jenrick asked for an ‘assurance’ from Labour that no criminals were sentenced under the postponed rules.
It came as Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood acknowledged for first time that the Council’s measures were ‘more likely to discourage a judge from sentencing an offender to jail’.
She told MPs the Government is to publish emergency legislation which will block the Council from making similar guidelines in the future.
She said the new Bill will ‘prohibit the Council from making guidelines about pre sentence reports with specific reference to the offender’s personal characteristics, such as their race, religion or belief or cultural background’.
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick has warned of a ‘two-tier justice’ system and told MPs there was a ‘very real prospect’ that courts went ahead under discredited guidelines
Mr Jenrick told the Commons Ms Mahmood had ‘completely lost control of the justice system’
‘She sat her hands for weeks, took seven days to gather her thoughts and put her views in writing to the Sentencing Council,’ he said.
‘Her incompetence took this down to the wire.
‘Magistrates and judges were only updated by the press office of the Sentencing Council at midday today that the guidelines that were due to come into effect had been suspended.
‘That raises the very real prospect that magistrates and judges, sitting from 10am this morning, were unaware of this chaotic, last-minute change, and did sentence people under guidelines that the Justice Secretary concedes are two-tier.’
Ms Mahmood replied: ‘The pause in the guideline was communicated. That is a matter for the Sentencing Council.’
It is understood the Council sent out an email at 11.57am today advising judges that the guideline had been put on hold.
However, most magistrates’ courts start hearings at 10am and most Crown courts sit from 10.30am in most cases.
The controversial measures, published last month, recommended all ethnic minorities and transgender people convicted of a crime should be treated differently by judges and magistrates after being convicted of a crime.
They said it must ‘normally be considered necessary’ for the courts to commission a ‘pre-sentence report’ about criminals if they come from ‘an ethnic minority, cultural minority, and/or faith minority community’.
They also included a long list of other ‘minority’ criminals to be covered by the measures, including transgender people, young adults and addicts. It should also apply to all women offenders, they added.
Labour’s Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood is unveiling emergency legislation to prevent the Sentencing Council bringing in guidelines based on a criminal’s ‘personal characteristics
Pre-sentence reports often set out reasons why a jail sentence would be detrimental for an offender.
Ms Mahmood’s attempts to have the guidelines reviewed were initially rebuffed by the Council.
However, on Monday it was revealed their implementation was being delayed.
A No10 spokesman last week said Ms Mahmood was ‘considering a range of options, and that includes reviewing the roles and responsibility of the Sentencing Council’.
The head of the Sentencing Council Lord Justice William Davis initially refused to back down
Labour has already blocked new legislation – drawn up by Mr Jenrick last month – which would have solved the problem by granting ministers a veto over the Council’s guidelines.
Last week it was warned separate guidelines by the Council risk ‘blowing a hole’ in Britain’s border controls by watering down punishments for illegal immigration offences.
Mr Jenrick said the proposals will lead to hundreds of illegal immigrants a year being handed far weaker punishments than those approved by Parliament.
The Shadow Justice Minister called on Ms Mahmood to sack Lord Justice William Davis, the head of the Sentencing Council.
The Tory MP accused Sir William, an Appeal Court judge, of an ‘astonishing departure from the expected standards of judicial conduct’ after he gave a media interview calling for the abolition of short jail sentences, including those for ‘hyper-prolific offenders’.
‘It’s time for him to go,’ said Mr Jenrick.
‘If she wont sack him for this, what will it take?’
The Justice Secretary did not comment directly on whether she still had confidence in Sir William.
The Justice Secretary said Labour’s new legislation, the Sentencing Guidelines (Pre-sentence Reports) Bill, published today, would ensure ‘no race or religion should receive preferential treatment before the law’.
However, the narrowly-drawn text of the Bill applies only to ‘sentencing guidelines about pre-sentence reports’, saying they must not be framed by an offender’s ‘personal characteristics’ such as their race.
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood inspects a prison cell at the new HMP Millsike, at Full Sutton near York, last week
It appears to leave the Council with the opportunity to include such criteria in guidelines relating to other aspects of the justice system.
Mr Jenrick said: ‘This Bill doesn’t fix the problem. Unless ministerial oversight is established, and members of the Sentencing Council are sacked, we will see more nonsensical guidelines in the future.
‘For instance, there is nothing in the Bill that would stop the Council’s draft immigration guidelines that water down sentences – and mean hundreds of foreign offenders will avoid deportation – from being blocked.
Shabana Mahmood, who is Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor, during a visit to Yorkshire’s new jail, HMP Millsike, last week
‘This is too little, too late.’
In the wake of calls for the Council to be scrapped or reformed, Ms Mahmood told MPs further measures could be introduced at a later date.
‘The proper role of the Sentencing Council and the process for making guidelines of this type must be considered further,’ she said.
‘I will do so in the coming months. It is right that this question is considered in greater depth and should further legislation be required, I shall propose it as part of the upcoming Sentencing Bill.’
