Background
The former Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan believed that the key principles by which to judge the mechanisms of providing sentencing guidance to the judiciary in Northern Ireland are transparency, consistency and community engagement. For that reason, in October 2009 the Lord Chief Justice asked the Right Honourable Lord Justice Girvan to convene a Judicial Sentencing Working Group of judges from across the sentencing tiers to consider Northern Ireland’s system of providing sentencing guidelines. The purpose was to assess what, if any, improvements could be made to the sentencing guideline arrangements in Northern Ireland. The Working Group reported to the Lord Chief Justice in June 2010 and made a number of recommendations, building on existing practice, which the Lord Chief Justice welcomed and accepted.
One of the proposals in the Report was that there should be a Sentencing Group comprised of representatives from each tier of the criminal courts judiciary and chaired by a Lord Justice of Appeal. The Lord Chief Justice established such a Sentencing Group with the function to:
- advise the Lord/Lady Chief Justice as to topics for his ‘Programme of Action on Sentencing’;
- consider and advise sentencing guidelines for the Magistrates’ Courts in Northern Ireland;
- consider judgments of the Court of Appeal and advise the Judicial Studies Board as to their suitability for inclusion on the Judicial Studies Board Sentencing Guidelines and Guidance website;
- consider first instance judgments of the Crown Court and advise the Judicial Studies Board as to their suitability for inclusion on the Judicial Studies Board Sentencing Guidelines and Guidance website;
- liaise with the Judicial Studies Board as to the training of the judiciary on sentencing practice and the dissemination of sentencing guidelines;
- make such other proposals and carry forward such other programmes of action relating to sentencing guidelines and practice as may seem fit to them after consultation of the Lord/Lady Chief Justice.
Membership of the Sentencing Group
Following its initial establishment, the Lord Chief Justice considered the appointment of lay members to the Sentencing Group would enhance the Group’s ability to perform its functions. To that end, in 2013, the Lord Chief Justice, in consultation with the Department of Justice, ran two open public competitions to appoint two lay members to the group: one lay member was required to have academic experience in criminal law, criminal procedure or sentencing within the Northern Ireland criminal justice system; the second lay member was required to have a knowledge and understanding of issues facing victims of crime.
In June 2013 the Lord Chief Justice was very pleased to appoint Professor Sally Wheeler of Queen’s University, Belfast as the first lay member on the Group. In June 2016 Ms Geraldine Hanna, Chief Executive, Victim Support NI, given her knowledge and understanding of the issues facing victims and witnesses of crime, accepted an invitation from the Lord Chief Justice to join the Group as the second Lay Member.
Court of Appeal Sentencing Guidelines
The Sentencing Group conducted a review of all judgments published on the ‘Sentencing Guidelines’ section of the JSB website and removed all those guidelines which had been superseded by subsequent judgments of the Court of Appeal.
The Sentencing Group periodically reviews new judgments being issued by the Court of Appeal. Where the Group considers that the judgment forms the basis of a sentencing guideline, it directs the judgment to be published on the Judiciary NI website.
Magistrates’ Courts Sentencing Guidelines
Most of the sentencing guidelines in Northern Ireland relate to Crown Court cases. That is a simple consequence of the fact that an appeal from the Magistrates’ Court is to the County Court, and cases from the summary jurisdiction will only come before the Court of Appeal by way of case stated. The Sentencing Group has considered a number of mechanisms for capturing good sentencing practice and giving guidance for the Magistrates’ Courts. This is more difficult than in the Crown Court because of the fast-moving and on-the-day nature of summary justice. The Sentencing Group has, therefore, established a judicial sub-committee chaired by the Presiding District Judge (Magistrates’ Courts) to look at the most significant categories of “volume offending” in the Magistrates’ Courts.
This committee has been set the task of drawing up sets of sentencing guidelines for these offences, which will be discussed and agreed by the district judges as a body as representing existing good practice. These guidelines are published on the Judiciary NI website, and are accessible to members of the judiciary, the legal profession and the public, with the aim both of enhancing consistency and of improving public information about sentencing. Although the guidelines do not have the force of law, they are relevant to the decision-making exercise undertaken by a Magistrates’ Court when sentencing an offender and will, therefore, be taken into consideration by the court. They are also applicable where a County Court is sentencing an offender on appeal from a Magistrates’ Court, or where the Crown Court is sentencing an offender for a summary offence joined on indictment. They are guidelines, not tramlines, and sentencers may, as with all sentencing guidelines, depart from them in exceptional circumstances.
These guidelines are not applicable to the Youth Court.
The Sentencing Group’s Magistrates’ Courts Sentencing Guidelines Sub-committee, chaired by the Presiding District Judge (Magistrates’ Courts), has created and published sentencing guidelines which cover the vast majority of offences which commonly come before the courts. The sentencing guidelines which have been issued are kept under review by the Sentencing Group to ensure they reflect changes in the law and current best practice.