Lord Chancellor Robert Buckland addresses new sentencing white paper in speech

Article summary

The Ministry of Justice has published a speech by Lord Chancellor Robert Buckland on the subject of the white paper ‘A Smarter Approach to Sentencing’. In his speech, the Lord Chancellor sets out what he sees as current problems with sentencing, and goes on to discuss changes for those who have committed serious crimes, including violent and sexual crimes. Under the new legislation, ‘offenders who have committed serious crimes and who are assessed to be dangerous at the point of being sentenced can receive either a life sentence or an Extended Determinate term. This means there is no automatic release and these cases go to the Parole Board to assess whether it would be safe to release offenders’. The Lord Chancellor also discussed extended sentence lengths for the most serious of crimes, supervising offenders in the community and reducing reoffending.