Faced with changes to the criminal justice system in England and Wales driven by a quango—an unelected body designed to govern at arm’s length from Westminster and the electorate—Labour’s justice minister took action in Parliament which has delayed the imposition of new sentencing guidelines.
From Tuesday April 1st, Sentencing Council rules would have instructed courts to “normally consider” ordering a pre-sentence report—including information that could mitigate against prison time, or moderate bail conditions—on offenders from “an ethnic minority, cultural minority, and/or faith minority community” or who “are transgender.” When Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood first requested that the Sentencing Council reverse the guidance, it refused: a decision that left PM Keir Starmer “disappointed.” (Current procedures mean judges work with individual circumstances e.g. punishing first-time offenders and career criminals differently for the same offence.)
According to a BBC report
The new rules, which would have been binding on judges, were set to take effect on Tuesday but were delayed on Monday because of the inevitability that they would be overturned by parliament anyway.
The proposals caused controversy ever since they were first made public, with Tory shadow justice minister Robert Jenrick calling them “two-tier justice” with “blatant bias” against Christians and straight white men. They were suspended after an emergency bill was submitted to Parliament in time for April 1st—although it can’t be debated until April 22nd at the earliest, after MPs return to Westminster from their Easter recess.
