Victims and bereaved families will be given six months to challenge “unduly lenient” sentences handed to criminals, under changes announced by David Lammy.
Relatives of murder victims campaigned for the government to scrap the 28-day time limit to submit a formal request after an offender is sentenced.
Lammy, the lord chancellor and justice secretary, said the change was in recognition that in the immediate aftermath of a heinous crime, grieving families and traumatised victims cannot also be expected to engage with the justice system within a month.
The unduly lenient sentence scheme allows any member of the public to refer a sentence to the attorney general and the solicitor general – the government’s senior legal advisers – if they believe it is too lenient.
They can then request that the court of appeal review the sentence – a safeguard to help ensure the sentence reflect the seriousness of the offence.
Following concerns that victims and their families were not aware of the scheme, the government will also introduce a legal duty in the Victims’ Code to notify survivors of the existence of the scheme.
Tracey Hanson, who has campaigned for changes after her son Josh was murdered in a nightclub, welcomed the move. She had submitted an appeal to the attorney general in 2019 within the 28-day time limit to challenge the sentence. However, it arrived at 8.40pm on the last day and was deemed “outside court hours”.
She had not been told by her barrister, police, courts, nor victim support that she could appeal against a lenient sentence within 28 days of the judge jailing her son’s murderer, Shane O’Brien. He had been Britain’s most wanted man when he fled to Europe after the killing in a private plane chartered by a drug dealer.
David Lammy, the justice secretary, said scrapping the 28-day limit to challenge a sentence would allow bereaved families to ‘get the justice they deserve’. Photograph: Denis Balibouse/Reuters
Hanson said the change was a testament to her son’s memory after a seven-year campaign. “These changes represent a hard-fought victory in ensuring that families are no longer left in the dark or rushed through a traumatising process during the most painful moments of their lives,” she said.
Katie Brett, whose sister Sasha Marsden was 16 when she was raped, murdered and set on fire, said her family were not told that they had a right to challenge the sentence given to her killer until it was too late.
“It’s a relief that in Sasha’s memory, victims and their families will have six months to challenge an unduly lenient sentence and the new legal duty to be notified means every family will know their rights,” she said. “No family should ever be left in the dark like we were; every victim deserves support.”
The right to appeal against a sentence remains restricted to serious crimes tried in the crown court, such as murder, manslaughter, robbery, rape, stalking and most child sexual abuse offences. It excludes hundreds of other offences, including some sexual crimes, causing death by careless driving and burglary.
To push the changes through, ministers will table amendments to the victims and courts bill, which is progressing through parliament. Other members of the public will still have 28 days to refer a case under the scheme.
Lammy said: “When someone’s been through the ordeal of seeking justice and watched the person who hurt them or their loved one be sentenced, the last thing they should be worrying about is a ticking clock.
“People need time to breathe, to talk to their families, to get advice. This change means they’ll have more time to do this – and most importantly, get the justice they deserve.”
The shadow justice minister, Kieran Mullan, cautiously welcomed the move. “After months and months of voting down sensible proposals for reform, this is a step forward and reflects the strength of feeling from victims, families and campaigners who have been calling for change,” he said.
