Member

The current guidelines for pre-sentence reports were very carefully revised with the input of not just senior judges but leading academics and practitioners—experts in criminal justice who understand the complexities and systemic disadvantages that many offenders face. In the House, we routinely rely on expert testimony to shape our policy, whether it concerns the NHS, education or the environment, and rightly so. In this case, however, we are doing the precise opposite: rejecting expert opinion, dismissing data, and ignoring lived experience.