To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to assess the efficacy of the Sentencing Council.
Answered on
2 February 2023
The Sentencing Council is an independent non-departmental public body. Section 119 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 sets out that the Council must provide the Lord Chancellor with an annual report on the exercise of its functions, and that the Lord Chancellor must lay a copy before Parliament. The Ministry of Justice also regularly reviews performance to provide assurance that the Council is fulfilling its statutory functions. In addition, a tailored review of the Council was published in 2019 which made a number of operational recommendations to improve efficiency and effectiveness, which have been implemented.
The 2021/22 Annual Report can be found here: https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/publications/item/sentencing-council-annual-report-2021-22/.
The 2019 tailored review of the Sentencing Council can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tailored-review-of-the-sentencing-council.