Source · Select Committees · Justice Committee
Recommendation 4
4
Not Addressed
Paragraph: 37
Improve public legal education on sentencing through diverse educational programmes and resources.
Recommendation
There needs to be a step-change in the Ministry of Justice, the Attorney General’s Office and the Sentencing Council’s efforts on public legal education. HMCTS should develop a programme which enables secondary school pupils to be able to visit magistrates’ courts and Crown Courts to find out about the criminal justice system and sentencing. Education about criminal justice procedure, including sentencing policy and practice, should be incorporated into the National Curriculum for Citizenship Education. The Sentencing Council should look into producing a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on sentencing that could enable members of the public to learn about how sentencing works in England and Wales. Resources on sentencing and criminal justice could also be added to the Oak National Academy Online teaching resources. The Ministry of Justice and the Sentencing Council should consider producing a standalone public-facing website dedicated to providing the public with up-to date information on sentencing trends in England and Wales.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government highlights existing public education initiatives such as TV broadcasting of sentencing remarks but does not commit to the specific new programmes, curriculum changes, or website creation proposed, instead deferring to the Sentencing Council's independence for some aspects.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
37
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government · verbatim extract
Not Addressed
9. Public education: Since July 2022, television cameras have been allowed into Crown Courts for the first time to broadcast judges’ sentencing remarks. Allowing broadcasting in this way is intended to help the public better understand how our justice system works and see justice being delivered to build trust and confidence in the system. The public can access the Sky News (Courts) YouTube channel where all previous broadcast sentencing remarks are available to view. We have recently expanded the range of judiciary who can be filmed, to include Court of Appeal judges sitting in the Crown Court, who sometimes preside over the most high-profile and serious cases. However, not all sentencing remarks are filmed as applications to film are made by approved media parties and approval is at the discretion of the judiciary. Crown Court broadcasting of sentencing remarks built on the success of live streaming of cases from the Court of Appeal, which began in 2019. Most cases from the Court of Appeal (civil division) are live streamed on the judiciary’s YouTube channel.
Read the full response on Parliament ↗