Anger at new UK ‘two-tier’ sentencing rules for minorities
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
The reform drawn up by the independent Sentencing Council would also be applied to other groups, such as young adults aged 18-25, and women.
PHOTO: AFP
LONDON - The UK opposition leader on March 6 backed the justice minister over scrapping new guidance for judges requiring them to consider a convict’s background, including their ethnicity, when deciding jail terms.
Under new guidelines – due to come into force from April – a pre-sentence report examining a defendant’s circumstances will usually be needed before handing out punishment for someone of an ethnic, cultural or faith minority.
The reform drawn up by the independent Sentencing Council would also be applied to other groups such as young adults aged 18-25, women and pregnant women.
The Labour government’s Secretary of State for Justice Shabana Mahmood told Parliament on March 5 she was concerned the new guidance was inherently unfair.
“As somebody from an ethnic minority background, I do not stand for any differential treatment before the law for anyone,” she said.
“There will never be a two-tier sentencing approach under my watch or under this Labour Government,” she added.
She later said on X she would be writing to the Sentencing Council “to register my displeasure and to recommend reversing this change to guidance”.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesman on March 6 said he “backs her comments”.
Leader of the opposition Conservatives Kemi Badenoch called on Ms Mahmood to act urgently.
“If the Justice Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, doesn’t want a two-tier criminal justice system, she should change the law and the Conservatives will back her,” she said on X.
“Ministers should decide, not quangos. Labour need to grip this,” she added.
The Conservatives’ justice spokesman Robert Jenrick branded the new rules “outrageous” and “blatant bias”.
The advice was published on March 5 by the Sentencing Council, one of a number of independent bodies linked to the justice ministry, which reviews and publishes guidelines.
The council’s chairman William Davis said the reasons for including different groups varied but included “evidence of disparities in sentencing outcomes, disadvantages faced within the criminal justice system and complexities in circumstances of individual offenders that can only be understood through an assessment”.
The reforms would ensure “sentences are the most suitable and appropriate for the offender and offence”, he added. AFP
