Member

The point of my Amendment 2 and its accompanying Amendment 4 is to provide that the prohibition on guidelines that refer to particular cohorts or personal characteristics will not apply where the council has good cause to believe that leaving such characteristics out of account would be likely to lead to an inequality of outcomes. The Sentencing Council would be entitled to propose guidelines that face reality and advise judges how best to approach it. We regard that as fundamental and just, and I propose to seek the opinion of the House on Amendment 2.