Courts in England and Wales Given Different Sentencing Options for Ethnic Minorities

Robert Jenrick, the opposition spokesman on justice, said it would ‘enshrine an anti-white and anti-Christian bias in our criminal justice system.’

Robert Jenrick speaks at a fringe event during the Conservative Party Conference at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham, England, on Sept. 30, 2024. Jacob King/PA Wire

A set of new guidelines offering pre-sentencing reports in English and Welsh courts to ethnic minorities and “faith minority communities” is due to come into force on April 1, with critics raising concerns about discriminatory sentencing treatments.

Pre-sentencing reports are currently issued on a case-by-case basis and are often used when judges or magistrates want more information about defendants after they have been convicted of a serious criminal offense and face possible incarceration.

The reports are often asked for when the defendant is young, may have mental health issues, or is solely responsible for the care of a child or relative.

For example, pre-sentencing reports were asked for in the case of Martin Frost, 47, who last month admitted to a racially aggravated public order offense after setting fire to a Koran while live-streaming the event on social media. The court heard that the “trigger” for Frost’s actions was the death of his daughter in the Israel–Hamas conflict.

Issued to judges and magistrates on March 5 by the Sentencing Council, an advisory nondepartmental public body funded by the Ministry of Justice, the new guidelines state that “a pre-sentence report can be pivotal in helping the court decide whether to impose a custodial or community order and, where relevant, what particular requirements or combination of requirements are most suitable for an individual offender on either a community order or a suspended custodial sentence.”

The guidance goes on to state that a pre-sentence report would normally be considered necessary if the offender belongs to one or more of the following cohorts and then lists people who are “female” or “from an ethnic minority, cultural minority, and/or faith minority community.”

Some opponents, including Robert Jenrick, the British opposition spokesman on justice who unsuccessfully ran for the leadership of the Conservative Party in summer 2024, wrote on social media platform X on March 5 that the new guidelines would “create a two-tier justice system.”

“We believe in equality under the law. Why doesn’t Labour?” he said.

A former immigration minister under former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Jenrick said the change is “completely outrageous.”

“This would enshrine an anti-white and anti-Christian bias in our criminal justice system,” he said.

Last year, after long sentences were meted out to people taking part in protests against immigration in the wake of the murder of three young girls in Southport, England, several opposition politicians, including Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, accused the government of running a two-tier justice system.

Jenrick said a pre-sentence report was “the first step to avoiding a prison sentence.”

“It’s very rare to get a non-custodial sentence without [a pre-sentence report],” he said.

A Sentencing Council spokeswoman told The Epoch Times that the fact that pre-sentence reports are ordered did not mean it was inevitable that a defendant would get a lighter sentence.

She said the new guidance was designed to highlight “some cohorts of offenders who might be particularly vulnerable,” and that it was not an exhaustive list.

The spokeswoman said pre-sentencing reports were always at the discretion of the judge or magistrate, and that the guidance did not mean that all women or ethnic minorities would have to have pre-sentencing reports.

‘Put Public Safety First’

Norman Brennan, a retired police officer and law-and-order campaigner, questioned the logic behind the new guidelines.

“Why are they vulnerable? The people that are vulnerable are the victims,” he told The Epoch Times.

“It’s about time that we actually turned this on its head. It’s about time that we actually stood the criminal justice system up strong and firm, that was equal and fair to everyone, and it really is about time that you put public safety first.

“Each and every one should be treated fairly.

“We seem to bend over backwards to appease certain elements of the community. Well, there should be no appeasement to any section of the community.”

Brennan said the victims of crime were forgotten and “all we seem to be concerned about is those that commit crime, and looking for any and every excuse not to punish them.”

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood told The Epoch Times that she will be writing to the Sentencing Council to register her “displeasure and recommend reversing this change to guidance.”

“The Sentencing Council is entirely independent. These guidelines do not represent my views or the view of [the] government,” she said.

“As someone who is from an ethnic minority background myself, I do not stand for any differential treatment before the law, for anyone of any kind.

“There will never be a two-tier sentencing approach under my watch.”