The government plans to introduce legislation in Parliament this week to override new sentencing guidelines for ethnic minority offenders. This move comes after the Sentencing Council rejected a request from Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood to reconsider the guidelines.
The new rules, set to take effect on Tuesday, instruct judges to request reports detailing the backgrounds and circumstances of offenders from specific minority groups before determining their sentence.
This has sparked accusations of a “two-tier” justice system, with Mahmood claiming the approach amounts to unequal treatment by encouraging reports for some offenders but not others.
Government sources have confirmed that legislation will be presented this week to remove the section of the guidelines that has drawn criticism.
While they aim to pass the law quickly through Parliament, a Ministry of Justice (MoJ) source acknowledged that the new guidelines are still set to come into effect on Tuesday as planned.
The proposed legislation will focus specifically on the disputed part of the guidelines, according to the MoJ source.
In a letter to the Sentencing Council, Mahmood emphasized that decisions regarding who receives pre-sentence reports should be a matter of policy, accountable to the public and Parliament. She expressed concern that the appearance of unequal treatment before the law could have harmful consequences.
The Sentencing Council, which is responsible for setting sentencing guidelines, defended the new approach, stating it aimed to address disparities in sentencing outcomes between white and non-white offenders.
In a statement published on Friday, Lord Justice Davis, the council’s chair, confirmed that the guidelines would not be revised, as they were well-received during a consultation under the previous Conservative government.
MoJ sources suggested that the controversy could lead to broader reforms in a sentencing bill later this year, following an ongoing review by former Conservative Justice Secretary David Gauke. The specifics of these potential changes remain unclear, but one possibility is increased scrutiny of the Sentencing Council’s work by ministers or Parliament.
Lord Falconer, a Labour peer and former justice secretary, supported concerns about the new guidelines creating the impression of an unfair system.
However, he opposed emergency legislation to override the council, advocating for a more thorough consultation process to explore why minority offenders receive harsher sentences.
Conservative shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick criticized the government’s response as inadequate, claiming Mahmood had lost control of the justice system and presided over a system biased against white people and Christians, costing taxpayers millions.
He argued that the controversy had eroded public trust in the criminal justice system due to government mismanagement.
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