Coroners and Justice Bill

I do not think I can do better than the noble and learned Lord, Lord Woolf, in the way he described the position. The reason we are seeking to change the law in this regard is because the Gage working party thought there was a need to be slightly more robust and it thought that this phraseology was more robust than the existing one. They were concerned with consistency. As for predictability, that is important because we need to plan for prison places and probation resources. That does not mean that sentencing is determined by resources, but it is key to the Gage report recommendations. We need to improve predictability, because we do not want a sentencing grid. The Gage report, at paragraph 4.14, says that there is, at present, no information on departures, but it goes on to say: ""In our view this represents another defect in the present system"." I am asked why transparency is relevant. It is relevant so that the public and victims of crime have some understanding of the range of sentences that are likely to be imposed for a given offence. I put it as broadly as that. It is also important, of course, to defendants, so that they know what they might expect if they commit, or have committed, a crime, and, of course, for lawyers who represent them. I am conscious that I have been on my feet for some time. I hope I have put the Government’s case on this. I think the complaint that this is somehow going to restrict judges’ independence of action on sentencing to an extent whereby they become mere ciphers and just do what the state wants is hugely misplaced. It is for those reasons that I am going to move the government amendments in due course and I ask the noble and learned Lord, Lord Lloyd, to withdraw his amendment.