Emergency sentencing law will not pass before Easter

An emergency law to override new rules about how to sentence offenders from ethnic minorities will not be passed before Easter, government sources have confirmed.

Guidelines due to come into effect in England and Wales on Tuesday advise judges to consider the lives of offenders from ethnic minority and other backgrounds before deciding on punishment, prompting claims of “two-tier justice”.

The prime minister said he was “very disappointed” the Sentencing Council refused to reconsider the guidance.

Sir Keir Starmer said he had “no other option” but to pass a law overruling the body, but a government source said it would be all but impossible to pass such legislation before Easter.

The guidelines advise that magistrates and judges get a pre-sentence report – giving further details of an offender’s background – before handing out punishment for someone of an ethnic or faith minority, alongside other groups such as young adults, abuse survivors and pregnant women.

The Sentencing Council, made up of some of the most senior legal figures in England and Wales, said the guidance would address disparities in the punishments meted out by judges.

Official figures show that offenders from ethnic minorities consistently get longer sentences than white offenders for indictable offences.

Speaking to GB News on Monday, the prime minister said the government would bring forward legislation to reverse the new guidelines.

“There’s no other option, so we will do that. We will fast-track it,” he said.

But a government source said it would be all but impossible to pass the law overturning the guidelines before Parliament’s Easter recess.

The House of Lords breaks for Easter on Thursday and does not sit again until 22 April. MPs break up on 8 April.

Some in government believe the law could and should have been rushed through before then.

Others are understood to have raised concerns that it would be obstructed in the House of Lords, especially by eminent lawyers, if the government were seen to be moving with excessive speed.

Politically, it will leave the government liable to claims it has allowed “two-tier” justice to take effect on its watch.

The issue was first raised by Conservative shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick, who said the new guidelines were biased “against straight white men”. He proposed a private members bill to for

In response, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the guidance amounted to a “two-tier sentencing approach” and that she “did not stand for any differential treatment before the law, for anyone of any kind”

Responding to reports the emergency legislation may not pass for weeks, Jenrick said Mahmood had “lost control of the justice system”.

“Labour are frantically scrambling around, but whatever they do now is too little, too late,” he said.

“We now face months of decisions being taken on the basis of sentencing guidelines that the Justice Secretary concedes are two-tier.”

This situation was entirely preventable. Labour should have backed my Bill to block this weeks ago, or brought forward their own legislation sooner. Instead they sat on their hands, and now confidence in the justice system is in pieces.’

The Sentencing Council was established in 2010 to try to ensure consistency in sentencing. Sir Keir, at the time Director of Public Prosecutions, was one of its founding members.