Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to review sentencing guidelines for offences committed by people previously incarcerated for serious crimes against the person.

Sentencing guidelines are issued by the independent Sentencing Council. The Council have a duty to monitor the use of guidelines and will review them where appropriate. Those guidelines should be followed by courts at the point of sentencing in conjunction with other statutory requirements, including the need to take account of previous convictions. There are appeal processes to enable prompt challenges to a sentence, including, in some circumstances, the ability of the Attorney General to refer to the Court of Appeal an unduly lenient sentence.