Conservatives will abolish the Sentencing Council quango to end two-tier justice

Today [Monday 6^th October 2025] the Conservative Party is announcing that the Sentencing Council will be abolished to stop two-tier justice and end lenient sentences for serious criminals.

In a speech by Robert Jenrick MP, Shadow Justice Secretary, the Conservatives will outline their plans to place Ministers in charge of sentencing policy to ensure justice is delivered.

The decision follows two-tier sentencing guidance that urged judges to factor in race, sex and religion when deciding sentencing and new immigration guidelines that water down sentences for immigration offences. 

As well as ending unequal sentencing, Jenrick will outline that that the Sentencing Council's guidelines have watered down sentences outlined by Parliament for serious crimes.

Under the Sentencing Council's guidelines, domestic burglary carries a sentence range of between 0 and 6 years despite Parliament allowing a 14-year maximum, a reduction of 57%.

Assaulting an emergency worker, which Parliament specifically raised to a two-year maximum in 2018, still has guideline ranges topping out at one year,  exactly half the statutory limit afforded by Parliament.

The 2023 animal cruelty guideline sets a maximum of three and a half years, even for “sadistic” abuse, despite Parliament having increased the ceiling to five years, amounting to a 30% reduction.

The Sentencing Council recommends a sentencing range of 10-16 years for the most serious facilitation offences with the highest culpability; however, under the Nationalities and Borders Act the statutory maximum for the most serious acts of facilitation is life imprisonment.

That is why the Conservatives will instead hand sentencing responsibility to the Lord Chancellor. This will ensure sentencing policy is set by democratically accountable Ministers and approved by MPs, not unelected officials, to ensure they are kept in line with public expectations.

The next Conservative Government will use a statutory instrument to make this change – delivering a society that upholds law and order, and protects the British public.

Robert Jenrick MP, Shadow Justice Secretary, said:

“The Sentencing Council is not fit for purpose. Never again can the British people face the prospect of two-tier justice.

“We are slipping into a two-tier nightmare under Keir Starmer. All too frequently the law is not applied equally.  No more - every single person in this country must be treated exactly the same, regardless of their background.

“The public are sick of voting for tougher sentences and getting the opposite. So in future the Justice Secretary, accountable to Parliament, will be responsible for setting sentencing policy. No longer will an unaccountable quango be able to subvert the will of the British people for criminals to be properly punished.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

The Sentencing Council attempted to introduce two-tier sentencing guidelines that undermine the principle of equality before the law:

• The previous Labour Government set up by the Sentencing Council for England and Wales, taking away sentencing powers from elected officials and ushering in a culture of impunity. The Sentencing Council was established by the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, passed under the last Labour Government led by Gordon Brown (Legislation.Gov.UK, Coroners and Justice Act 2009, 12 November 2009, link).

• The Sentencing Council drafted two-tier sentencing guidelines that would have meant a criminal is less likely to go to prison for exactly the same crime if from an ethnic or faith minority, or an immigrant. Set to come into effect from 1 April 2025, the new sentencing guidelines would have urged judges and magistrates to request a pre-sentence report these specific cohorts, meaning they would be less likely to receive a custodial sentence. They also issued that would have allowed illegal immigrants to avoid deportation by urging judges to give sentences of less than 12 months for certain offences to avoid deportation, despite the maximum sentence allowed in UK law being considerably higher (Sentencing Council, Imposition of Community and Custodial Sentences – Effective from 1 April 2025, 5 March 2025, link; The Times, 26 March 2025, link).

• The Justice Secretary called for criminals to be sentenced differently based on their ethnicity, inspiring the Sentencing Council's two-tier sentencing guidelines. David Lammy led a review of the justice system in 2017, title the Lammy Review, which was used by the Sentencing Council when it drew up new guidelines for courts to follow when considering whether to send criminals to prison (The Daily Mail, 7 March 2025, link).

Our Plan

• We will abolish the Sentencing Council and give the Lord Chancellor the power to issue new sentencing guidance, subject to the assent of Parliament. We will do this by introducing new primary legislation to replace the relevant provisions of the Coroners and Justice Act 2008, amend the duties of the Lord Chancellor, as laid out in the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, and reallocate the power to issue authoritative sentencing guidelines to the Lord Chancellor.