Sentencing Guidelines (Pre-sentence Reports) Bill

Debate between Lord Wolfson of Tredegar and Lord Marks of Henley-on-Thames

3rd reading
Tuesday 10th June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Marks of Henley-on-Thames (LD)]

My Lords, I add my note of sadness at the news of the death of Lord Justice William Davis recently and add my condolences to those of the Minister to his family upon his passing. He was a judge of great distinction. He led the Sentencing Council, which is the subject of this Bill, with very great distinction as well. He will be greatly missed.

Turning to the Bill, we made it clear that we did not agree with the Bill: we did not agree with the principle or that the proposed guidelines of the Sentencing Council threatened the notion of equality before the law. We believed, as is clear, that this was not a sensible use of emergency legislation and that the disagreement between the Sentencing Council and the Lord Chancellor should have been resolved without the need for legislation. We were concerned that the Bill had the potential to damage the Sentencing Council. In the event, we did not succeed in securing the withdrawal of the Bill, or in amending the Bill, which had Conservative support, so it will now become the law.

However, we can take two strong positives from the debate around this Bill. The first is the Government’s commitment to the Probation Service and to the importance of pre-sentencing reports in giving guidance to judges and providing consistency in sentencing. The commitment has been to having more reports of higher quality, backed up by increased resources. I thank the Minister for his kind words to me and others in opening this short debate; I say from these Benches what a credit he has been to his department and to this House in coming fresh to the House with his very strong commitment to the sentencing system and the Probation Service. His presence on the Front Bench has been a breath of fresh air for us all, and we are very grateful to him.

The second positive has been the recognition around this House of the enormous value of the Sentencing Council in giving independent, well-researched advice on sentencing to judges, with a view to promoting consistency not just in sentencing but in the approach to the factors that judges need to take into account in sentencing. I add my gratitude to Members around the House—both those with experience of acting in criminal cases and those with no experience of the criminal law or of law at all—who have stressed the importance of these issues to the development of the law and our criminal justice system, and, perhaps more importantly, to the maintenance of confidence in the criminal justice system in future.

[Lord Wolfson of Tredegar (Con)]

My Lords, I pay tribute to the late Lord Justice William Davis. We learned of his death over the weekend with deep sadness. His integrity, clarity of thought and unwavering commitment to fairness made him a towering figure in the field of criminal justice. His loss will be felt across the entire legal and judicial community, although most immediately by his family, to whom we send sincere condolences.

From these Benches, I express our thanks to all those who contributed to this Bill in Committee and on Report. The quality of that debate, if I may respectfully say so, was exemplary, echoing and always meeting the high standards that this House sets when dealing in particular with matters of criminal justice, with the expertise we have on all sides of the Chamber.

These Benches offer our support for the principles underpinning this legislation. The more effective use of pre-sentence reports will encourage informed and consistent judicial discretion and lead to better sentencing outcomes, reducing reoffending, encouraging rehabilitation and serving the interests of public safety. While this Bill is therefore a very good first step, we look forward, together with other noble Lords around the Chamber, to other initiatives in this area. Sentencing remains a complex and sensitive area of the law because it touches individual lives and the life of the community. We believe that this Bill provides a strong foundation and are confident that it will be implemented to good effect. We therefore support the Bill and look forward to it being implemented as part of a justice system that is fairer, more consistent and more effective.

Finally, on a more personal note, the Minister noted that this was the first Bill which he has taken through the House. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Marks of Henley-on-Thames, that we may disagree politically but these Benches recognise that the Minister not only shares a commitment to a fair and modern criminal justice system but has practical experience in this area. Where possible, we will of course work constructively together, as we did on this Bill.

Judicial Pensions (Amendment) Regulations 2024

Debate between Lord Wolfson of Tredegar and Lord Marks of Henley-on-Thames

Monday 11th November 2024 Grand Committee

[Lord Marks of Henley-on-Thames (LD)]

My Lords, first, I congratulate the noble Lord on his concise and detailed opening on a complicated set of regulations. I note that the regulations were introduced by the last Government and have hardly undergone any significant change since their introduction, so it is unsurprising that they are likely to be relatively uncontroversial. There will certainly be no opposition from the Liberal Democrats to these proposals.

The most significant of what are largely tidying-up amendments are those that bring into line with other fee-paid judges a number of tribunal judges and chairs. That is completely in line with the view that we all take—that tribunal judges and chairs are a very important part of the working judiciary and that the tribunal system does the whole work extremely well. It is right that the pension arrangements for paid judges should be aligned.

The other significant point is that the pension arrangements for part-time service in the light of the O’Brien judgment are now going to be tidied up so that some of the anomalies that arose from that judgment have been eliminated, so far as they can be, although it is a difficult area—and I appreciate that the regulations have to reflect that difficulty.

I noted from the Explanatory Memorandum and the Minister’s opening that there was a consultation, which attracted no fewer than six responses, none of them critical—and, I take it, all of them raising questions that have been satisfactorily answered. In view of that, I have no further questions for the Minister on this SI.

[Lord Wolfson of Tredegar (Con)]

I am not sure whether I need to declare a formal interest, as my wife sits as a fee-paid tribunal judge but, for the avoidance of any doubt, I do. I suspect that the impact of this regulation on her will be de minimis and no doubt happen in many years’ time.

That said, I can be brief because the Minister has been so comprehensive. As we heard from the noble Lord, Lord Marks of Henley-on-Thames, these regulations emanate from the previous Government; this is not an area where, historically, there has been political controversy. Indeed, as the Minister said, we debated similar regulations when our roles were reversed. I echo his comment to me that this is probably not the last time we will come back to debate and discuss these pension regulations, because they are complex. Part of the reason for that is the history and the litigation that has arisen, but the one thing we share around the Committee is the importance of having an attractive pension scheme so that we attract the finest candidates to our judiciary—and retain them. Indeed, one of the things we did in the previous Government was to increase the retirement age to 75. The Minister referred to our outstanding and independent judiciary, and we absolutely endorse those two adjectives; it is outstanding, and it is totally independent.

I also endorse the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Marks of Henley-on-Thames: the fact that we are widening some of these pension schemes to include more tribunal judges is testament to the fact that so much of the important work of our judiciary is done by tribunal judges, both full-time and part-time—I think fee-paid is the proper term. Day in, day out, tribunals up and down the country deal with really important issues for people on the ground, so to speak. They are often unsung, and far from the legal journals and law reports, but they deal with important legal issues on a daily basis.

I have only one question for the Minister, which I ask as a matter of interest rather than in any controversial way. I note that, by these regulations, we are extending the time to enable judges to make choices between the pre-1995 and post-1995 schemes. I am interested in why we are extending time for that and why this particular period of extension has been chosen.

Other than that, I am tempted—as I think they are still debating the Budget in the Chamber—to point out that, although it is important to have attractive and gold-plated pensions in the public sector, that does not mean that we should raid private pensions in the private sector. If I say any more on that I will take this debate to places where it ought not to go, so I will stop there and make it unequivocally clear that we on these Benches are also firmly in favour of these regulations. I thank the Minister for introducing and explaining them so clearly.