Sunday, 19 January 2020

Sentencing on the Box- More Confidence or More Prisoners ?


What will be the impact of televising judges’ sentencing remarks in the Crown Court? Justice Secretary Robert Buckland and Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett hope that regular broadcasting will improve public understanding of the justice system. The BBC, ITN and Sky, who have long campaigned for greater transparency in the courts say much the same. But there must be serious questions about whether filming and broadcast from courts will in fact lead to an increased level of public confidence in the sentencing decisions handed down by judges. Around 70 per cent of the public think sentencing in general is too lenient and while this perception is often reduced when people are presented with individual cases, the latest research for the Sentencing Council found that “for some offences, there may be a public appetite for higher sentences than the guidelines suggest or legislation allows”.

Critics of the plan include barrister Clive Stafford Smith, who  thinks televising sentencing decisions is a very bad idea indeed which will impose “political pressure on judges to be harsh on people populists hate and label ‘criminals’”. I’m concerned that there’ll be a spike in complaints about unduly lenient sentences and a chilling effect on creative sentencing which prioritises rehabilitation over punishment. All that could mean longer sentences and a much-increased prison population.  Or will the benefits outweigh the risks?   

The Supreme Court has allowed broadcasting of its proceedings since it was established in 2009 and filming in the Court of Appeal has been possible since 2013 although I can’t remember seeing much footage of the latter. The government reviewed the introduction of Appeal Court broadcasting after a year of implementation, concluding that after some initial problems, it had effectively been embedded into court practice. The review also raised the issue of whether “the broadcast material is used in a manner conducive to achieving the policy aims of improving public access and understanding of court judgements”. This theme was one to be re-considered as part of a proposed test in the Crown Court which was undertaken three years later.

In 2016, the government launched that test of the practical and technical challenges of filming in the Crown Court. In Parliament, “support was expressed for an extension to court broadcasting if it led to increased public understanding of the court system and greater transparency of court judgements”. But how do we know if it has achieved these worthy aims?

An Impact Assessment prepared in 2016 before Parliament approved the test filming in the Crown Court said that “following the end of the test period, a further Impact Assessment will be prepared to support the final decision as to whether to allow Court Broadcasting of sentencing remarks from the Crown Court”. But the Statutory Instrument (SI) laid before Parliament last week which would make that final decision has no Impact Assessment attached to it.  One has not been prepared “as no significant impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen”.

Before approving the SI, MPs and Peers must ask some serious questions about what is known about experience so far- and indeed in other jurisdictions where filming is allowed.  The government have acknowledged that their policy aims would not be met if the media selected cases for public interest value or excitement, rather than with the aim of promoting understanding. Risks have also been raised by government that “televising our courts may open the judicial process to sensationalism and trivialise serious processes to a level of media entertainment”.  How do they propose to prevent this happening?

The government claims that televising hearings is part of their wider court reform and digitalisation programme, “using technology and modern ways of working to increase access to justice for people up and down the country”.  But, to coin a phrase, they would, wouldn’t they?

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