Member

What is problematic about this debate and this legislation is that it has been framed as if the real conflict is between politics and the role of our criminal justice system. I would say that the real issue underlying this legislation—I know this is not a view that is shared—is how seriously this House, and Ministers in particular, are prepared to take the proven history of racial discrimination in our criminal justice system, and not just pay lip service to it but do something about it. The poor Sentencing Council is scarcely made up of radicals; it is a group of very senior judges. However, like anybody with any connection to the criminal justice system, those judges know that there is an issue of institutional racism in the courts. In the mildest possible way, they were trying to make a suggestion through their guidelines that might help to ensure that everybody is treated the same.