15th Report - Sentencing Bill

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, declines to publish a Keeling Schedule, and says it amended the Bill at Lords Report stage to address concerns about approval of the Sentencing Council's business plans and guidelines.

• On a Keeling Schedule, the Government says such schedules "are not routinely published for every Bill" and "does not consider it necessary to publish one in this case".
• On business plans, amendments provide that if the Lord Chancellor decides not to approve a plan, they must notify the Council and, "as soon as practicable", lay a document before Parliament stating their reasons. Similar amendments were made to clause 19 on guidelines.
• On the Council's independence, the Government says it is "clear that a very high bar must be met" for rejecting guidelines, and that a guideline can only be rejected "in instances necessary to maintain public confidence in the justice system".
• The Government says approval requests are to be considered "as soon as practicable" and that it "recognise[s] that there is further detail to work through" on how the approval measures will work in practice.

Read the government's response ↗ Report an error