John Deasy
Question:304 Mr. Deasy asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the plans he has to introduce controls to ensure the consistency of sentencing by the Judiciary; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28364/03]
Written Answers. - Sentencing Policies.
Under our legal system the law provides generally for maximum penalties for criminal offences. The law enables a judge to exercise his or her discretion, within the maximum penalty, by reference to the conclusions he or she has reached after trying the case. This is done after hearing all the evidence and assessing the culpability and circumstances of the accused.
The Courts and Court Officers Act 1995 enables me, as Minister, to provide funds for judicial training courses arranged by the Judiciary. The Judicial Studies Institute was established by the Chief Justice for the purposes of judicial training and funds are made available to it. The institute has examined the issue of sentencing in the context of its training programme.
As regards consistency in sentencing, section 36 of the Courts (Supplemental Provisions) Act 1961 makes provision for meetings of District Court judges to discuss,inter alia, the avoidance of undue divergence in the exercise of the jurisdiction of the court and the general level of fines and penalties. While there is no similar statutory provision in the case of other courts, it is understood they hold similar meetings. Under the Criminal Justice Act 1993 the Director of Public Prosecutions may, where it appears to him that a sentence imposed on indictment is unduly lenient, apply to the Court of Criminal Appeal to review the sentence.
The complex question of sentencing policy was addressed at length by the Law Reform Commission in 1996 in a report that specifically recommended against the introduction of statutory sentencing guidelines. Its report pointed out a number of differences of opinion among its members on some of the recommendations of the report that tends to underline the obvious complexities of a sentencing policy.
The issue was also addressed in the recent report of the working group on the jurisdiction of the courts. The group made final recommendations and drew attention to possible options to promote consistency. At present my Department is considering the report.