The Justice Secretary has threatened to overrule the Sentencing Council by changing the law as she called for new guidance for judges to consider a criminal’s ethnicity before deciding their punishment to be reconsidered “as soon as possible”.
In a letter to the independent body, the Lord Chancellor said she “must make clear my displeasure” at the changes, adding: “I do not stand for differential treatment before the law like this.”
The Sentencing Council on Wednesday published new guidelines for courts to follow when imposing community and custodial sentences, including whether to suspend jail time.
The changes, which come into force from April, detail that a pre-sentence report would usually be necessary before handing out punishment for someone of an ethnic, cultural or faith minority, alongside other groups such as young adults aged 18 to 25, women and pregnant women.
But Ms Mahmood wrote: “A pre-sentence report can be instrumental in assisting courts in the determination of their sentence.
“But the access to one should not be determined by an offender’s ethnicity, culture or religion.”