The King’s Speech yesterday saw the government promise to give tougher sentences to offenders convicted of serious crimes.
The proposed Sentencing Bill will look to ensure those convicted of murder with a sexual or sadistic motive should spend the rest of their lives in prison without any prospects for release unless in exceptional circumstances. Rapists and sexual offenders will also have to spend everyday of their sentence behind bars. The government also announced a proposed Criminal Justice Bill, which will allow ‘reasonable force’ to be used to ensure offenders attend court for their sentencing and that, where this fails, offenders will have to spend an additional two years in prison.
The intention of the proposals is to help deter grave sexual offences. One such case referred to was the murder and sexual assault of Zara Aleena by Jordan McSweeney in June 2022. This high-profile case involved McSweeney being released from prison on licence just nine days before Aleena’s murder and refusing to attend his sentencing. In response, London’s victims’ commissioner, Claire Waxman, called for the government to ‘move forward with its proposals to compel offenders to attend their sentencing’ and suggested offenders who refuse to do so should serve two additional years in prison.
Addressing the proposals in the King’s Speech, Nick Vineall KC, the Chair of the Bar Council, expressed the urgent need for additional funding to ensure effective access to justice and adequate function of the justice system. Concerned about the proposal regarding whole-life sentences, he said ‘there is an obvious risk that when no credit can be achieved from a guilty plea, defendants who know that they have no defence will nevertheless insist on a trial.’
There are also legitimate concerns about proposals to impose longer sentences in light of the current prison capacity crisis where overcrowding has led to poor conditions and the government having to rent prison space abroad. However, these proposals are somewhat balanced out by the government also suggesting they would suspend short sentences of less than twelve months.
Reacting to the speech, Pia Sinha, the Chief Executive of the Prison Reform Trust described the speech as ‘a game of two halves.’ She stated: ‘Sending prisoners in the UK to serve their sentences abroad is a startling admission of the hole the government has dug itself on prison capacity, largely as a consequence of ill thought through punitive justice policies….But behind the populist facade there are signs of a welcome change in approach. A presumption to suspend short sentences of less than 12 months should mean fewer individuals spend wasteful short spells behind bars. To be successful, investment in probation and effective community interventions will be vital.’
