Nicholas Dakin MP: speeches 2025

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Speeches

17 Mar 2025 · Sentencing Council Guidelines · Hansard source
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If the right hon. Lady stops gabbling and listens, I will attempt to answer her question. I think the right hon. Lady is getting a little ahead of herself. There is a process in place, and there has been a constructive meeting with the Sentencing Council. A letter is being sent to the Sentencing Council, and the Sentencing Council will respond.
17 Mar 2025 · Sentencing Council Guidelines · Hansard source
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I have tried to explain this, and I will explain it once more. The Justice Secretary, the Lord Chancellor, has been extremely clear that she believes in equality before the law, and she is not happy with the guidelines. That is why she wrote as soon as they were published, unlike Conservative Members, who had sight of them earlier in the consultation. They went further than ignoring them; they responded to them in a very positive way.
17 Mar 2025 · Sentencing Council Guidelines · Hansard source
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The Government do not believe that there should be differential treatment before the law. The Lord Chancellor has been very clear about that. The “Equal Treatment Bench Book”, to which the hon. Member alludes, is written by and for the judges. Ministers have no involvement whatsoever in its content.
17 Mar 2025 · Sentencing Council Guidelines · Hansard source
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I thank the former common sense Minister for her question—
17 Mar 2025 · Sentencing Council Guidelines · Hansard source
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There is one thing that we know about Labour Governments: they always have to clear up the mess left by Conservative Governments. That is what the Lord Chancellor is doing at the moment. She is clearing up the mess left by the previous Government: the clogged-up the courts, the overflowing prisons and the overworked Probation Service. Getting back to the facts of the case, the Lord Chancellor met the Sentencing Council last Thursday and had a constructive discussion. It was agreed that she will set out her position more fully in writing, which the Sentencing Council will then consider before the guidance is due to come into effect. This is serious government, not auditioning for government. The Conservatives were not only consulted; they welcomed these guidelines when they were in office. The former Minister for sentencing wrote a letter of welcome to the Sentencing Council setting this out on 19 February 2024. There is a process in place now that needs to be allowed to play out. We will not pre-empt that process.
17 Mar 2025 · Sentencing Council Guidelines · Hansard source
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The Lord Chancellor has made her position clear. She immediately met the Sentencing Council, and she is writing to it again to set out her concerns, and the Sentencing Council has committed to responding to them quickly.
17 Mar 2025 · Sentencing Council Guidelines · Hansard source
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The Father of the House and my constituency neighbour brings a constructive note, and I agree with exactly what he says. We have an independent judiciary that we should let get on with the job.
17 Mar 2025 · Sentencing Council Guidelines · Hansard source
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The hon. Member is perfectly right to underline the importance of equality before the law. He gives me the opportunity to give a plug to the independent review of sentencing being conducted by David Gauke with an independent panel, which will address the issues that he has raised.
17 Mar 2025 · Sentencing Council Guidelines · Hansard source
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Certain things are a matter of policy, and they are for the Government and for Parliament. We have had a constructive meeting with the Sentencing Council, a letter is going to the Sentencing Council, and the Sentencing Council will respond. We totally respect the independence of our judiciary.
17 Mar 2025 · Sentencing Council Guidelines · Hansard source
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To be fair, the chair of the Sentencing Council met the Lord Chancellor last week, and it was a constructive meeting. He is awaiting a letter from the Lord Chancellor, which he promises the Sentencing Council will consider and respond to before 1 April.
17 Mar 2025 · Sentencing Council Guidelines · Hansard source
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I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend’s point.
17 Mar 2025 · Sentencing Council Guidelines · Hansard source
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My hon. Friend the Chair of the Select Committee makes a good point about the way in which the shadow Justice Secretary conducts himself. The important thing is that the Lord Chancellor had a constructive meeting with the chair of the Sentencing Council and there is now a process in place to address this issue.
17 Mar 2025 · Sentencing Council Guidelines · Hansard source
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There was a constructive meeting. If the right hon. Member had been in it, I do not think he would have seen it as somebody “asking”. There was a constructive exchange of views, and there is a proper process in place, which I am confident will come up with the right answer.
17 Mar 2025 · Sentencing Council Guidelines · Hansard source
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The letter the previous Government wrote to the Sentencing Council during the consultation is clear. The previous Government were not just consulted; they welcomed the guidance. The initial version of the guidance included reference to specific cohorts of offenders, including ethnic minorities.
17 Mar 2025 · Sentencing Council Guidelines · Hansard source
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I thank the right hon. Member for the constructive tone of his question. I refer him to the point about our not wanting to get ahead of ourselves. We need to allow the process to go forward, and to respect the Sentencing Council’s role in it; we will address things when we need to address them.
17 Mar 2025 · Sentencing Council Guidelines · Hansard source
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The hon. Member reads out a phrase that was welcomed by the previous Government, but that the Lord Chancellor is objecting to and talking to the Sentencing Council about.
17 Mar 2025 · Sentencing Council Guidelines · Hansard source
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My hon. Friend is exactly right that pre-sentence reports play an important role, and we ought to applaud the work that the Probation Service and others do in preparing those reports. She is exactly right to point to how effective they are in helping with sentencing.
17 Mar 2025 · Sentencing Council Guidelines · Hansard source
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Further to that point of order, Mr Speaker. I do not believe that I inadvertently misled the House.
17 Mar 2025 · Sentencing Council Guidelines · Hansard source
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The hon. Lady has said what everybody else in this House and outside it is thinking.
17 Mar 2025 · Sentencing Council Guidelines · Hansard source
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To be fair to the Conservatives, they did not work on the guidelines, but they were consulted on them, and they did respond to them in a positive way.
17 Mar 2025 · Sentencing Council Guidelines · Hansard source
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That is exactly what the Lord Chancellor is saying.
17 Mar 2025 · Sentencing Council Guidelines · Hansard source
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The hon. Gentleman will not be surprised to learn that I agree with him. The victims Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Pontypridd (Alex Davies-Jones), is sitting next to me; we take victims very seriously. That is why there is a victims’ representative on the sentencing review panel. We need to make sure that victims are at the centre of whatever we do. I have met too many victims already in this role, and every time I meet them, it is very difficult—a little difficult for me, but hugely difficult for them, because they live this.
17 Mar 2025 · Sentencing Council Guidelines · Hansard source
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My hon. Friend is exactly right. The previous Government were fully involved in the consultation, and not only were they fully involved, but they welcomed it.
17 Mar 2025 · Sentencing Council Guidelines · Hansard source
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I agree with my hon. Friend that the last Government appear to have been asleep at the wheel, rediscovering their mojo only once they were in opposition.
17 Mar 2025 · Sentencing Council Guidelines · Hansard source
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My hon. Friend is right to contrast the approach of the soundbites from the shadow Justice Secretary with the Justice Secretary’s approach of rolling up her sleeves and getting on with the job of sorting out the mess left in our prisons, Probation Service and courts.

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