Select committee: Justice Committee
Conclusion 1
Tenth Report - Public opinion and understanding of sentencing
Published 25 Oct 2023
Paragraph 21
Addressed to Ministry of Justice
Justice Committee Public opinion and understanding of sentencing All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
Beyond the role of the courts in imposing a sentence, the public does not have a good understanding of the role played by different state institutions in sentencing. That is unsurprising because the role played by government, Parliament, the Sentencing Council and the judiciary in sentencing involves a delicate balance of responsibilities, which are not easy to explain. Further, most of the public obtain information from the media about sentencing through reporting on individual cases, and such stories do not often provide information on the policies and responsibilities that lie behind individual sentencing decisions. The problem with this situation is that it creates an accountability gap, as it is unclear to the public which elements of sentencing the Government is responsible for.
From: Justice Committee, Tenth Report - Public opinion and understanding of sentencing (HC 305), paragraph 21, 25 October 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 18 January 2024 (deadline 25 December 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government welcomes the Committee's report and says it has "delivered, or are delivering, several initiatives" on public confidence and transparency, while leaving recommendations aimed at the Sentencing Council and the judiciary to those bodies.
- On sentencing remarks, it has announced "a one-year trial" letting victims of rape and other serious sexual offences request the judge's sentencing remarks free of charge in the Crown Court. It does not extend this to all victims, citing cost to the taxpayer.
- On the Victims' Code, once the Victims and Prisoners Bill has received Royal Assent, the MoJ "will be publicly consulting on an updated Victims' Code" and will consider the information on the Unduly Lenient Sentence Scheme as part of that.
- On statistics, it says its quarterly Criminal Justice System Statistics publication provides more flexible data tools than a lengthy digest would, and that it "will continue to consider options" for broader visual presentations.
- On terminology, it "share[s] the objective" of accessible sentencing language and awaits the Sentencing Academy's work. On press judges, it says any consideration is "not for government but a matter for the judiciary".