Coroners and Justice Bill

I apologise for rising again, but I think that the importance of what the Sentencing Guidelines Council will be doing means that it is worth while taking time and looking carefully at what message will be given as a result of changing what appears in subsection (11). I urge the Government not to amend either paragraph (b) or (d). In saying that, I urge that consistency is one of the most important aims and objectives of sentencing. Nothing can be more unjust than to have two persons who commit an offence in circumstances which are indistinguishable, where the backgrounds are indistinguishable, but they get different sentences. If you go to the Court of Appeal Criminal Division on any day of the week, I would think that your chances of hearing sentences being adjusted by that court to achieve consistency are very high. As to the cost of different sentences and their relative effectiveness in preventing reoffending, surely those are very material considerations. I have not had the advantage of reading carefully what the committee mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Henley, was referring to. I could understand the passage that he quoted if it dealt with the question of whether the resources available to the court should be taken into account. I understand an argument that says that question of the resources that should be available is a matter for Parliament, but I do not understand why it should necessarily apply to paragraph (d). Effectiveness in sentencing is surely what we are trying to achieve. If there is a possibility of a less expensive sentence achieving exactly the same, or something more praiseworthy, as one which is more expensive, it does not seem rational—I say that respectfully—to impose a more expensive sentence in that situation. I have in mind, in particular, non-custodial forms of sentence, as against custodial forms. I hope it is now generally accepted that a short sentence of imprisonment is unconstructive and a very bad use of resources. On the other hand, I should have thought that it was general policy on the part of sentencers that where you can achieve what is desired by a non-custodial sentence, then that is what you should do, if you are sentencing well. I am afraid that if we remove subsection (11)(d), it will be taken as an indication that what I have just said is not the appropriate approach towards sentencing. I respectfully submit that that would be an error.