Sentencing Guidelines (Pre-sentence Reports) Bill

Debate between Lord Beith and Lord Burnett of Maldon

Committee stage
Monday 19th May 2025 Grand Committee

[Lord Burnett of Maldon (CB)]

My Lords, I shall make one or two observations on this group. I echo what the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, said, but, before anyone considers this additional process, it is important to have in mind what already exists. All guidelines that the Sentencing Council eventually issues are subject to extensive consultation—with the public consultation and with interested bodies—but, more importantly, they are subject to political consultation. That arises in two quite different contexts.

The first is that the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice are consulted. Of course, that happened in connection with this guideline, which became controversial although it was not seen as controversial by Ministers who were then in the Ministry of Justice. That is not the end of the political involvement, though, because a statutory consultee for all sentencing guidelines is the Justice Committee of the House of Commons. Again, in this particular instance, the Justice Committee was consulted. As all here know, that committee comprises Members of Parliament from a broad cross-section of parties, and, as it happens, they, too, thought it uncontroversial. So there are those two political consultees. However, that is not the end of the matter because the Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor have on the Sentencing Council itself an observer who is able, on behalf of the ministry, to raise any matters of concern.

So, with respect to the noble Lord, Lord Sandhurst, and this amendment, it seems to me that upsetting the extremely carefully calibrated scheme enacted by the 2009 Act is unnecessary.

[Lord Beith (LD)]

My Lords, I do not recollect a regulation-making power that requires the Secretary of State to bring forward the regulations. Normally, such powers are permissive—the Secretary of State “may” bring forward regulations—or indicate an area where there must be regulations but the precise ones are brought forward at a decision by the Secretary of State.

More generally, I worry that, per the phrase used by the noble Baroness, Lady Chakrabarti, this looks a bit like clipping the wings of the Sentencing Council rather than recognising that it is a valuable arm’s-length body with processes—they have just been helpfully described by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Burnett—that ought to serve the purpose of ensuring that the Government are not blindsided by things that come from the Sentencing Council; indeed, they need not have been in this case. Going much further and introducing this fairly complex mechanism runs the risk of making the Sentencing Council appear less authoritative to those who have to take account of what it does.