Report to the People
25th September 2006
The
Right Consistency
Does anything
annoy football fans more than a referee’s inconsistency?
One minute, your player gets booked for winning the ball with a brave
tackle. The next, their burly centre half fells your striker with a
tackle so late you’d need a calendar to time it and you don’t even get a
free kick.
But the most
a ref’s inconsistency is going to cost you is 3 points or some money.
It’s a
different matter, though, where more important decisions, such as those taken in
the courts, are concerned. If
criminals are handed wildly differing sentences for the same crime, not only are
victims let down, public faith in the justice system is undermined.
Last week,
therefore, the Sentencing Commission for Scotland published plans to improve
consistency in sentencing.
The
Commission says there should be an Advisory Panel on Sentencing in Scotland,
which would prepare draft sentencing guidelines for consideration by the Appeal
Court of the High Court of Justiciary. And,
to ensure input from outside the judiciary, the Advisory Panel would not be a
judges’ closed shop.
These
guidelines would not dictate sentences in individual cases, but where a judge
imposes a sentence which is outwith these guidelines, they would have to explain
themselves.
For there to
be fairness and justice in the legal system, there must be consistency in
sentencing. As Commission Chairman,
Lord Macfadyen, puts it, “these principles demand that similar crimes
committed in similar circumstances by offenders whose circumstances are similar
should attract similar sentences.”
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