UK govt moves to block sentencing guidelines for minority defendants

Both the Labour government and the opposition Conservatives oppose the guidance, due to have come into force on Tuesday, which Justice Minister Shabana Mahmood said "risks undermining public confidence in the justice system".

Issued by the Sentencing Council -- an independent yet unelected body -- the guidance would require a pre-sentence report examining a defendant's circumstances before handing down punishment to someone who belongs to an ethnic, cultural or religious minority.

Introducing the bill in parliament, Mahmood argued the reports were "more likely to discourage a judge from sending an offender to jail and it is this that creates the perception of differential treatment".

"No race or religion should face preferential treatment before the law," the Labour justice minister added.

The Sentencing Council's chairman William Davis has argued the guidelines were necessary given the "evidence of disparities in sentencing outcomes" for defendants of different races, religions or cultures.

Last week the council said the guidelines "did not require revision", meaning parliament has to legislate to render them unlawful.

The body did agree, however, to pause their implementation until parliament votes on the bill.

Conservative member of parliament Robert Jenrick, who acts as the right-wing opposition's spokesperson on justice issues, said Mahmood had "completely lost control of the justice system" and that "her incompetence took this down to the wire".

"The justice secretary has been humiliated and undermined by activist judges seeking to undermine the will of our parliament," he told lawmakers.

In October 2022, a report by a top UK lawyer and the University of Manchester found evidence of "institutional racism" in the justice system in England and Wales, particularly in the treatment of black and Asian defendants.

Although like-for-like comparisons are difficult, the average sentence length for white defendants was lower than those from any other minority between 2018 and 2022, according to government statistics.