Sentencing council to be reviewed after two-tier row

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said she will review the role of the Sentencing Council following a "two-tier" justice row over its latest guidelines.

Labour and the Conservatives have criticised the council's plan to advise judges in England and Wales to seek extra information before deciding how to punish offenders from certain minority groups.

The guidelines have now been abandoned after ministers tabled an emergency law to override them on Tuesday.

But Mahmood also told MPs she would launch a review of the "proper role" of the council and how it makes guidelines, to begin in the coming months.

Labour has shown a willingness in recent weeks to look afresh at the role of arm's length bodies, announcing plans last month to completely abolish one body, NHS England, and return its powers to the health department.

There is already a review of the sentencing system under way, led by former Conservative justice secretary David Gauke and aimed tackling prison overcrowding.

It is not currently clear how the two reviews will interact.

The guidelines were set to advise magistrates and judges to obtain a pre-sentence report - giving further details of an offender's background - before handing out punishment to someone of an ethnic or faith minority, alongside other groups such as young adults, abuse survivors and pregnant women.

Conservative shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick first raised concerns about the guidelines earlier this month, saying they were biased "against straight white men" and amounted to "two-tier justice".

In response, Mahmood said she also opposed a "two-tier sentencing approach" and that she "did not stand for any differential treatment before the law".

The Sentencing Council had argued the now-suspended guidelines, which had been in development for months, would ensure courts had the "most comprehensive information available" to hand out an appropriate sentence.

This, the council said, could address disadvantages faced within the criminal justice system.

Official figures show that offenders from ethnic minorities consistently get longer sentences than white offenders for indictable offences.

Updating MPs on Tuesday, Mahmood said: "The proper role of the Sentencing Council and the process for making guidelines of this type must be considered further.

"I will do so in the coming months. It is right that this question is considered in greater depth," she said.

She added that "should further legislation be required," she would propose it as part of the government's planned Sentencing Bill.

"The Sentencing Council, while only 15 years old, holds an important position within the firmament of our justice system and any changes must be made carefully and with due consideration," she told MPs.

Parliament "must reverse" the guidelines and reassert "that no race or religion should receive preferential treatment before the law," she said.

Mahmood will also pilot the Sentencing Guidelines (Pre-sentence reports) Bill through Parliament after it was published on Tuesday.

If passed, the bill would prevent future sentencing guidelines about pre-sentence reports "framed by reference to different personal characteristics of an offender".

Responding to the new review, Jenrick said Labour had "completely lost control of the justice system".

The new bill would not "tackle the root cause of the problem," Jenrick argued.

He described the Sentencing Council as an "activist" quango, or quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation, whose views were "completely divergent to the public, to Parliament, and to the government."

He called on the government to back his plan require ministerial approval of any future Sentencing Council guidelines.

Veteran Labour MP Dianne Abbott said she was "astonished" that Mahmood thought judges could be swayed by "guidelines in relation to how they sentence black and brown defendants".

"Repeated statistical analysis has demonstrated what some of us consider to be unfairness in relation to black and brown people, and the criminal justice system," she said.

Abbott also warned against ministers interfering with the courts.

"This is not the United States, our political system and our judicial system are entirely separate," she said.