Sky News delayed the controversial sentencing guidelines that would come into effect on Tuesday after a political setback.
The sentencing board, the independent body that sets out sentencing to courts in England and Wales, would bring in new rules on how judges should determine punishment for people with ethnic minority backgrounds.
The new guidance states that a pre -sentence report – the results of which are considered in considering a criminal sentence – will usually be necessary “before handing out punishment for someone of an ethnic, cultural or faith minority, along with other groups such as young adults between 18 and 25 years, women and pregnant women.
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Justice Minister Shabana Mahmood said the proposed guidance is “unacceptable” and amounts to “differential treatment before the law” while requesting the council to reverse it.
When the sentencing council initially refused her request, Ms. Mahmood threatened to provide legislation to reverse the guidance if necessary.
She confirmed tonight that she will enter into legislation on Tuesday to implement these guidelines.
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However, Sky News understands that the implementation of these guidelines has now been suspended.
Ms Mahmood said: “These guidelines create a legal system where outcomes through race, culture or religion can be influenced.
“This differential treatment is unacceptable – equality before the law is the backbone of the confidence of the public in our justice system. I will change the law to secure fairness for everyone in our courts.”
The sentencing council also attracted criticism from Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick, who said the updated guidance is an example “Two-level justice” This would lead to ‘blatant bias’ against Christians and straight white men.
He also argued that it would make a supervisory sentence less likely for those from an ethnic minority, cultural minority and/or religious community ” – something that the Council denied.
The council had previously rejected calls from the government to abandon the guidelines, asking the judges to consider offenders’ racial, cultural and religious background when they decided a sentence.
Lord Justice Davis, chairman of the sentencing board, denied that pre -sentence reports had reduced the prospect of a prison sentence.
However, he said the council would provide “some explanation of the language” to prevent confusion.
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