Robert Jenrick has called for the head of the Sentencing Council, Lord Justice Davis, to be sacked for overseeing "two-tier sentencing guidelines".
In a post to X Mr Jenrick said:
The head of the Sentencing Council must be sacked.
Not only did he oversee two-tier sentencing guidelines.
He’s freewheeling and boasting about giving non-custodial sentences to hyper-prolific offenders.
He has politicised the judiciary and risked the safety of the public.
-- Robert Jenrick, April 1st 2025
Mr Jenrick also posted a video of himself speaking about Lord Justice Davis in the House of Commons.
Mr Jenrick addressed Secretary of State for Justice Shabana Mahmood:
After he has brought the sentencing counsel into total disrepute, can she honestly say at the dispatch box that she has confidence in the head of the sentencing counsel, Lord Justice Davis? Yes or no? And if she does, is she aware that yesterday, he took to the airways in an astonishing departure from the expected standards of judicial conduct to advocate for abolishing short sentences, especially for hyperprolific offenders, effectively instructing lower courts to follow suit. It's time for him to go.
And if she won't sack him for this, what would it take?
Surprisingly, there wasn't much of an answer from Shabana Mahmood.
Ms Mahmood replied:
Dear, dear, dear me. It seems that the right hon. Gentleman’s amnesia is as bad as ever: fourteen whole years appear to have disappeared entirely from his memory. He talks about parliamentary sovereignty, but when his party was in government and he was a Secretary of State or a Minister, he appeared never to know what on earth parliamentary sovereignty was or how to exercise power.
I think the right hon. Gentleman is rather distressed that my approach has led to a pause in the guidelines, that I will introduce a Bill that will deal with the offending bit of this guideline, and that I will consider the wider role and powers of the Sentencing Council ahead of the sentencing Bill later this year. I understand that it must be very disappointing for him that he has been exposed as someone who is all talk and no action, and that I get the job done. I can see that that annoys him greatly.
-- Shabana Mahmood, April 1st 2025
You can read the exchange on Hansard.
https://twitter.com/RobertJenrick/status/1907061726534582658
