Coroners and Justice Bill
12:00 pm
John Thornhill: I think that magistrates share your grave concerns. What is important is that magistrates and other members of the judiciary are free to sentence in an appropriate way the offender in front of them, taking into account the circumstances of the offence and the offender. Clearly, there must not be any impression or attempt to fetter that discretion. Our concerns are that if we look at something like clause 107, we are moving from “have regard to” sentencing guidelines, which is the current position, to “must follow”, where that is mandatory. Coupling that with a number of other clauses suggests that that might be the case. We have been given an assurance that it is not the intention to fetter discretion, but clearly those words might suggest that that is the case and that therefore there is an attempt perhaps to blur the distinction between the Executive and the judiciary. That is our concern.