The Justice Secretary said that the Justice Secretary will be able to veto any new change in the guidelines proposed by an independent public body, the Department of Justice has said.
Shabana Mahmud said that the change would “correct the Democratic deficit that is exposed” by ensuring that the punishment council can no longer issue new guidelines without its approval.
Changes will be brought as part of the punishment bill to be introduced in the House of Commons on Tuesday.
It comes after both the government and the opposition ministers, who criticize the council’s plan to advise judges to seek additional information before deciding to punish criminals from some minority groups.
The Justice Secretary and Lady Chief Justice, who heads the judiciary, will be given personal powers, which both of them need to approve any future guidelines, before they can be issued by the Council of Denies.
This means that if either opposes guidance, it will not be released.
The council will also have to take approval from the Justice Secretary to sign its annual business plan.
The Department of Justice said that reforms do not interfere in the freedom of judges in deciding to pronounce individual sentences.
Mahmud said: “The decisions of personal punishment will always be the responsibility of an independent judiciary – and this is something that I will strongly defend.”
“However, the policy should be determined by MPs, which respond to people.
“It is true that now we have more democratic and judicial inspection of the direction of the work of the council and the final guidelines published by him.”
This step is part of comprehensive changes in the punishment policy, including measures to stop Jail crowdLike involved Texas-style earned released sentences And hard community punishment.
New powers come after arrival Ministers intervened to block Earlier this year, the guidance of the punishment council was updated, in which judges were seen to consider the background of criminals. From some minority groups While deciding on punishment.
Under the proposed rules, a pre-default report would usually be necessary for an ethnic, cultural or belief to a minority before deciding the punishment, with other groups such as young adults, women and pregnant women between the ages of 18 to 25 years.
Both the opposition and the government criticized the change.
Orthodox Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrich first expressed concern about the guidelines in April, stating that he was “directly” biased against the white people and was the amount of “two-tier justice”.
official figures Show that criminals of ethnic minorities get longer sentences compared to white criminals for frequent crimes.
Mahmood asked the council to reconsider their guidance for judges earlier this year, but dismissed their request, arguing the rules, ensuring that the courts have “the most comprehensive information available” with which a proper punishment is fixed.
The guidelines for overrising them were abandoned after ministers took action on an emergency law.
