Lawyers attack 'step backwards' of block on sentencing guidelines

Shabana Mahmood's intervention to halt new guidelines on sentencing is "dangerous" and a "deliberate step backwards" according to senior legal figures and prison campaigners.

- Rajeev Syal

The Society of Black Lawyers said guidelines from the Sentencing Council, which were suspended after an intervention by the lord chancellor, were an attempt to achieve "equal treatment" after "racist two-tier policing for 500 years".

Pavan Dhaliwal, the head of the charity Revolving Doors, said Mahmood's decision to block the council's recommendations for pre-sentencing reports for minorities "is to ignore lived experience, evidence, and the reality of disparity in our courts".

On Monday the Sentencing Council suspended plans for guidelines in England and Wales that highlighted the need for pre-sentencing reports depending on age, sex and ethnicity, as ministers prepared to force through a law to overturn proposals.

The climbdown, which took place hours before the guidance was due to come into force, followed a standoff with the Ministry of Justice, which planned to use emergency legislation to override the plans.

The guidelines, first drawn up under the Conservative government, were viewed as evidence of a "two-tier" justice system by the shadow justice secretary, Robert Jenrick.