Member

There is a big gap between legislation and individual sentencing decisions. The Sentencing Council fills that gap, offering help to sentencers in their role. I suspect that if the Sentencing Council were not fulfilling that function, someone or something else would have to do so. In that gap between legislation and individual cases, the closer we are to legislation, the more legitimate parliamentary and ministerial involvement is likely to be; and the closer we are to individual cases, the more danger there is of trespassing on judicial independence and the separation of powers, so we should tread carefully.