A letter about sentencing guidelines from the South Yorkshire police and crime commissioner

In determining sentences, judges are guided by two things.

First, there is the law and what parliament has determined.

Parliament, for example, imposes maximum and minimum sentences for particular crimes.

Parliament has also decided that if people plead guilty before their trial starts, they will receive a lesser sentence.

This is because a guilty plea saves the victim having to endure further trauma and saves the taxpayer further expense.

For changes here, you will need to get on to your MP.

Then second, there is the Sentencing Council.

This is a body of mainly lawyers that is arms-length from government that sets out guidance for judges – and magistrates – which they must follow.

These guidelines ensure there is consistency of sentencing across all courts.

It would make a mockery of justice if an offender in Sheffield received, say, half the sentence of someone in Newcastle for the same offence.

Within the parameters set by Parliament and the Sentencing Council, the judge will then give what she believes is the appropriate sentence.

What Mr Lawton may be forgetting is that the judge will have sat through the entire case.

So she will have heard not only the impact the offence has had on any victim, but also whether there are any mitigating circumstances – which a report in a newspaper probably will not give.

But 90 per cent of all crime is tried in the magistrates’ court, where they are always on the look-out for new magistrates.

Perhaps Mr Lawton would like to step forward.

Dr Alan Billings

South Yorkshire police and crime commissioner