Way back in May 2016 I noted the publication of a Consultation by the Law Commission on the creation of a single code of law on sentencing for criminal offences. Well, the outcome of that consultation is now published. It is a great law reform effort and one that deserves to be implemented at the earliest opportunity.
To remind readers, the current law is so complicated that judges frequently get their sentencing decisions wrong. As the Commission itself noted:
The current law of sentencing is inefficient and lacks transparency. The law is incredibly complex and difficult to understand even for experienced judges and lawyers.
It is spread across a huge number of statutes, and is frequently amended. Worse, amendments are brought into force at different times for different cases. The result of this is that there are multiple versions of the law that could apply to any given case.
This makes it difficult, if not impossible at times, for practitioners and the courts to understand what the present law of sentencing procedure actually is.
This leads to delays, costly appeals and unlawful sentences.
There is near unanimity from legal practitioners, judges and academic lawyers that the law in this area is in urgent need of reform.
A new Sentencing Code has three key benefits:
- it makes the law simpler and easier to use;
- it increases public confidence in the criminal justice system; and
- it increases the efficiency of the sentencing process.
The benefits claimed for the new code are that it would:
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help stop unlawful sentences by providing a single reference point for the law of sentencing, simplify many complex provisions and remove the need to refer to historic legislation;
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save up to £256 million over the next decade by avoiding unnecessary appeals and reducing delays in sentencing clogging up the court system;
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rewrite the law in modern language, improving public confidence and allowing non-lawyers to understand sentencing more easily;
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remove the unnecessary layers of historic legislation; and
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allow judges to use the modern sentencing powers for both current and historic cases, making cases simpler to deal with and ensuring justice is better served.
It is hoped that the Sentencing Code could be enacted as a Consolidation Bill which would take up far less Parliamentary time than a normal bill. Progress ought to be made on this during 2019, if the political will is there.
For further information see https://www.lawcom.gov.uk/project/sentencing-code/ which provides links to the Report and the Draft Code
