Attorney general to give unduly lenient sentence work to greater pool of advocates

The attorney general has announced the launch of a pilot programme to allow a wider range of prosecutors to conduct appeals into the unduly lenient sentences (ULS) scheme.

Currently only treasury counsel participates on behalf of the government under the scheme, which gives anyone the right to challenge judicial sentences in a certain range of offences.

However, QC and grade 4 prosecution advocates will be eligible to participate in a six-month pilot of ULS casework. After the trial, the programme will be evaluated to determine its effectiveness.

Attorney General Jeremy Wright QC MP said it was vital that the public were able to challenge custodial sentences and to make sure offences are properly punished.

'This trial extension is a great opportunity for experienced lawyers to develop their skills further whilst preserving the continued effective operation of the ULS scheme,' he added.

The number of sentences considered by the Attorney General's (AG) Office has increased by 83 per cent since 2010, up from 342 sentences to 674 in 2014. During the same period, referrals by the AG's Office to the Court of Appeal rose 42 per cent, from 90 to 122.

Wright told SJ the logic behind the pilot was twofold: 'First of all, the number of cases coming to us under the ULS scheme has been increasing. Although the proportion we refer to the Court of Appeal has remained roughly constant, that is a larger number now, so there's more work to be done.

'Second, it's important to recognise that there are experienced, talented, competent advocates out there who are not treasury counsel and give them the opportunity to do some of this work.'

Wright said his decision was not a reflection on the quality of treasury counsel as he had been 'quite impressed' at their ability to take on high-profile and complex work since he became attorney general.

'This is not about taking things away from treasury counsel. It's about extending the opportunity to a greater proportion of the legal profession.'

The MP for Rugby and Kenilwort put the rise in cases down to an increase in the offences eligible to be reviewed for ULS and greater recognition of the scheme.

'Incrementally the scheme has been extended and offences added,' he said. 'The more offences within the scheme, the more opportunity there is for cases to be brought. This is a scheme that is not just open to members of the profession but also the public.

'As people get to know the existence of the scheme they will use it more. There's nothing complex or difficult about making use of it. The public simply have to get in touch with my office.'

The attorney general refuted any suggestion that the increase was in any way associated with problems with the judiciary.

'It's worth recognising that we're talking about a tiny percentage of the cases dealt with in the criminal courts. In my experience as a lawyer and in this job, judges, broadly speaking, get it right. They spend a good deal of time and effort trying to get their sentences right.'

He continued: 'The Sentencing Council issues more detailed guidelines than it used to, so judges have more external help than they used to. What we're not seeing here is a widespread failure by the judiciary. What we do see, on occasion, is judges coming up with a sentence that isn't right.'

Wright stressed it was important to retain a sense of perspective when considering the number of cases referred to the Court of Appeal.

'We pass on between 15 per cent and 20 per cent of cases brought to us. It is by no means the majority of cases. I'm pleased to say that on 80 per cent or 90 per cent of cases, the Court of Appeal agrees with us that a sentence was indeed unduly lenient. We're still talking about a minority of a minority.

'We had about 600 cases brought to us last year. About 120 were referred. If you think about the tens of thousands of sentences passed through the year, you will see it's a very small percentage indeed.'

Responding to the release of the attorney general's statistics in June 2015, the president of the Queen's Bench Division, Sir Brian Leveson, commented: 'These annual statistics show that the number of sentences found to be unduly lenient following consideration by the attorney general or solicitor general continues to be low.

'In 2013 and 2014 only 166 offenders had their sentence increased a very small fraction of the many thousands of offenders sentenced for relevant offences in the Crown Court that year.

'Sentencing is a complex process where the judge must take into account a number of factors in reaching a balanced decision. In order to maintain public confidence in sentencing, it is important that any member of the public may request a review by the attorney general of a sentence imposed in the Crown Court.'