Government seeks to overturn sentencing guidelines with law change

The Government will introduce a law change in Parliament this week to override guidance on how offenders from minorities should be sentenced.

The Sentencing Council refused a request from Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood to reconsider its new rules for judges earlier this month.

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.

The guidance 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.

Ms Mahmood is leading the Government’s attempts to quash the guidance.

She warned “all options are on the table” to overturn the guidance after chairman Lord Justice William Davis concluded the new rules did not require revision.

The PA news agency understands that a new Bill will be introduced to Parliament this week aimed at overturning the guidance.

It will then 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.

The Government then plans to examine the role and powers of the Sentencing Council, an independent public body, in the longer term.

This could lead to further changes to the law from the summer, following Conservative former minister David Gauke’s review of sentencing.

Among the changes being considered is a greater role for ministers or Parliament in scrutinising the Sentencing Council.

The fresh legislation has been revealed just a day after a Labour former justice secretary warned against such a move.

Lord Falconer, who served as justice secretary under Sir Tony Blair, told the BBC’s Week In Westminster: “I wouldn’t be in favour of emergency legislation before the consultation.

“The reason I’d be against emergency legislation at this stage is because I would take the view that the Government would get themselves into a very difficult position if every time they disagreed with the council’s views, they had emergency legislation.”

Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said Ms Mahmood had acted “too little, too late” on the new sentencing guidelines.

The senior Tory, whose party was in Government when the guidelines were first approved, said: “Shabana Mahmood has lost control of the justice system. From tomorrow the taxpayer will be made to foot the bill for tens of millions of pounds for a justice system that is biased against white people and Christians.

“Anything she does now is too little, too late. She should have backed my Bill that would have given her the powers to stop the two-tier sentencing guidelines, but she refused. The sacred principle of equality before the law is now being torn to shreds because of her and Two-Tier Keir.”

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.

As the Tory former minister did not secure a place in the ballot for private members’ Bills, it is almost certain not to become law.

The Bill was denied a second reading debate in the Commons on a sitting Friday, and Mr Jenrick blamed the Government for blocking it.

Mr Jenrick’s team suggested the new guidance could create an additional cost of £17.5m as a result of the extra pre-sentence reports that may be required.