The Justice Committee broadly welcomes
the approach taken by the Sentencing Council in its draft
sentencing guidelines on arson and criminal damage and public
order offences – but has some comments and concerns. These are
raised in a letter from the Chair of the Justice Committee
MP to the Chair of the Sentencing
Council, Lord Justice Holroyde, published in today’s report.
They include:
-
Resource assessments: The Committee notes
the limited data available to the Council, so that that
assumptions have had to be made in assessing the impact of the
new guidelines on sentencing practice. The Committee recognises
that the Council makes remarkably effective use of its limited
research resources but - given the current pressures on prison
and probation services – considers that it would be better to
provide more robust resource assessments to inform the public
consultation process.
-
The risk of sentence inflation: The
Committee has concerns about the potential for these new
guidelines to cause unintended sentence inflation. The Council
should take steps to monitor the impact of the definitive
guidelines for arson/ criminal damage and public order offences
as soon as it is practicable to do so.
-
Lack of maturity affecting the responsibility of the
offender: The Committee welcomes the inclusion of
“age and/or lack of maturity where it affects the
responsibility of the offender” as a mitigating factor in
relation to all arson/criminal damage and public order
offences. For young adults, a high proportion of these offences
may be linked to the impulsive behaviour and inability to
engage in consequential thinking that is often associated with
this age group.
-
Consideration of equality impact: The
consultation paper on public order offences sets out the
demographics of offenders and explains what the Council has
done to fulfil its legal obligations under the Public Sector
Equality Duty. For arson and criminal damage, the consultation
merely seeks the views on any possible equality impact of
the new guidelines. The Committee considers the former approach
to be preferable and it hopes that this is the model that the
Council will adopt in future.
The Committee also makes some specific comments on the two
individual draft guidelines.
Chair of the Justice Committee, MP, said:
“We have concerns about the risk of these guidelines causing
unintended sentence inflation, and we urge the Council to monitor
their impact as soon as it is practicable to do so.
“We particularly welcome the inclusion of lack of maturity as
a mitigating factor: young adults in the criminal justice system
was the subject of a major report we published earlier in the
year.
“However, we are pleased with the overall approach to the
guidelines, and as always we are grateful for the opportunity to
comment. We were also grateful to receive a detailed response
from the Chairman of the Sentencing Council.”
