Judicial response to the publication of the Attorney General’s unduly lenient referral statistics

The Deputy Head of Criminal Justice, Lord Justice Thomas, has responded to the statistics released today by the Attorney General’s office. These statistics report the number of cases where the Attorney General asked the Court of Appeal to decide whether a sentence imposed by the Crown Court was unduly lenient.

Lord Justice Thomas said:

“Only a small number of cases, where the Attorney or Solicitor General considers a sentence may be unduly lenient, are referred to the Court of Appeal each year and from the statistics, published today, we can see that still fewer are eventually found to be unduly lenient. The Crown Court dealt with over 90,000 cases in 2009. Of the referrals in that year the Court of Appeal ruled that just 71 offenders had been given a sentence which warranted an increase. This is a very small number when seen in context, and when one considers the intrinsic difficulties faced by the sentencing judge in dealing justly with each defendant in the specific circumstances of each case.

“In considering these cases the Court of Appeal is able to provide valuable guidance to judges and it is important that the public, through the Office of the Attorney General, has the power to ask for a sentence to be reviewed.”

Notes to Editors

1. The statistics and cases referred to the Court of Appeal by the Attorney General can obtained by contacting Russell Hayes, Attorney General’s Press Office, 020 7271 2484.
2. The Attorney General’s power to refer sentences to the Court of Appeal is set out in sections 35 and 36 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988. The power can only be exercised in relation to “indictable only offences” (serious criminal offences which can only be tried by the Crown Court) or offences which are set out in the Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Review of Sentencing) Order 2006 (including a number of sex offences, child cruelty and threats to kill).
3. For further information please contact the Judicial Communications Office on 020 7073 4852, or press.enquiries@judiciary.gsi.gov.uk