Sentencing Review - a brief note + Prison Reform Trust Citizen's Panel

In 2024, the recently elected Labour government announced a Review of Sentencing - Review of Sentencing (October 2024).  Interestingly, the newly appointed Secretary of State for Justice (Shabana Mahmood MP) appointed the former Conservative Secretary of State for Justice (David Gauke)* to chair the review.

The Review was set up against a background of capacity pressures on the prison system. 

A comprehensive re-evaluation of the sentencing framework was required and  3 principles apply to the review's work -

• firstly, sentences must punish offenders and protect the public - there must always be space in prison for the most dangerous offenders
• secondly, sentences must encourage offenders to turn their backs on a life of crime, cutting crime by reducing reoffending
• thirdly, we must expand and make greater use of punishment outside of prison

The Review is expected to report imminently and has already issued Part 1 of its report - History and Trends in Sentencing (18 February 2025).

Part 1 notes that, at the end of 2024, over 85,000 individuals were held in the adult prison estate - (England and Wales having one of the highest prison population rates in Western Europe). Also, by
September 2024, 240,497 individuals were under probation supervision.

The rise in the prison and probation population is seen as the result of "many decisions made by
successive governments and a “tough on crime” narrative that has focused primarily on punishment – understood as incarceration and longer sentences ..." There has also been "under-investment in probation and other alternatives that can provide rehabilitation and reduce reoffending."

"The piecemeal and unstrategic manner in which sentence lengths have increased in recent decades
has meant that there has been insufficient consideration of all of the statutory aims of sentencing:
punishment, crime reduction, reform and rehabilitation, public protection and reparation. Punishment is an important aim for the criminal justice system and prison plays a vital role in delivering punishment. But too often decision-making has been based on an approach that punishment is all that matters, and that the only  form of punishment that counts is imprisonment."

The conclusion of the Review is awaited with interest ..... 

Another issue is that any recommendations made by this review will have to be considered carefully alongside recommendations from Sir Brian Leveson's "Independent Review of the Criminal Courts"

Leveson's review is expected to report on options for long-term reform by late Spring 2025, following up with findings on court efficiency by Autumn 2025.

There is also on-going work by the Law Commission of the system of appeals (from either the Crown Court or Magistrates' Courts) - Law Comm Criminal Appeals.

Prison Reform Trust

At the end of 2024, the Prison Reform Trust commissioned a Citizens’ Panel on sentencing in England and Wales. Although a public dialogue and various polls and surveys have been undertaken on public awareness of sentencing, this Citizens’ Panel was established to gain depth insights on the overarching system of sentencing. The findings in this report are intended to provide recommendations of use to the Independent Review Panel and policy makers.

Footnote 

* David Gauke MP was Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor from 8 January 2018 to 24 July 2019. From 12 May 2010 to the present day, 11 individuals have held the office. Details at Wikipedia.