1 Report
1. Under the provisions of the Coroners and Justice
Act 2009 the Justice Select Committee must be consulted on proposed
draft sentencing guidelines by the Sentencing Council for England
and Wales. The draft assault guideline is the first guideline
to be developed by the Sentencing Council since it was established
in April 2010[1]. The proposed
guideline will replace the existing guideline on assault published
by the Sentencing Guidelines Council in February 2008.
2. We took oral evidence on this topic from the Chair
of the Council, Lord Justice Leveson; the Magistrates' Association;
Victim Support; Co-ordinated Action Against Domestic Abuse; Mrs
Nicola Padfield; Professor Andrew Ashworth; and Professor Neil
Hutton, in addition to receiving written evidence. We would like
to thank all those who submitted written material or gave oral
evidence.
3. Our evidence on this draft sentencing guideline
highlighted key areas in relation to the wider work of the Sentencing
Council. We will continue to observe the approach taken by the
Council in its interpretation of its statutory duties under the
Coroners and Justice Act 2009.
4. In addition to writing directly to the Sentencing
Council as a respondent to their consultation (see Annex), we
wished to publish this short report to draw the House's attention
to this guideline, the evidence received and our comments to the
Sentencing Council. We will take the same approach to publishing
our consideration of future guidelines.
1 http://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/docs/ASSAULT_DraftGuideline_web.pdf Back
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