Sentencing Council Guidelines

Lord Clarke of Nottingham Excerpts

Wednesday 19th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Timpson (Lab)]

The independence of the judiciary and the fact that everybody should be treated equally in the eyes of the law means that pre-sentence reports are determined by the judiciary, and it should stay that way.

[Lord Clarke of Nottingham (Con)]

My Lords, are the Minister and the Lord Chancellor having discussions on a more sensible subject, on which I know he has some views: reducing the amazingly high level of incarceration in this country, which is the major cause of the state of our prisons? The average sentence for many offences has pretty well doubled since I was Home Secretary and has increased very substantially since I was Justice Secretary more recently. There is no evidence that incarceration levels have any effect on the level of offending. As the Sentencing Council in the end has the last word on the guidance to our independent judiciary, will this subject be taken up so that the Lord Chancellor and the Minister can share their views with the Sentencing Council and see whether it will help in the efforts to get down to more sensible levels of incarceration for the most serious offences?

[Lord Timpson (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord for his question and for his generosity and kindness to me many years ago in helping me get going when I first started recruiting people from prison. When we had those conversations many years ago, the prison population was much lower than it is today. That is why we have established the review on sentencing being carried out by David Gauke. We await his report, which will be published in the spring.