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Alex Chalk KC also condemns current court delays as “completely unacceptable” and urges reforms to remove some cases from jury trial.
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Supports “Singapore on Thames” idea to embrace free trade in the face of President Trump’s tariffs war.
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Urges UK to take a lead in reform of the European Court of Human Rights.
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The comments come in a wide-ranging interview by Frances Gibb as part of The University of Law’s podcast which you can view on YouTube.
A former Lord Chancellor has stepped into the row over controversial guidance from the Sentencing Council, saying that ministers should have power to override its measures.
Alex Chalk, KC, says: “I do think it is time to recalibrate how the Sentencing Council works because independence and unaccountability are two sides of the same coin.”
Chalk, who was Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary in the last Conservative government, insists that the Council does “extremely important work”.
He also adds that judges’ independence to impose sentences must be protected. “Of course, independence in sentencing is critical. You can’t have politicians wading in with their size 12s in the case of individual sentencing decisions and that is axiomatic.”
He says however: “But the sentencing framework is something that I think that the Lord Chancellor should be able to have the ultimate sign-off over. And that’s what I would favour.”
Guidelines to judges from the Sentencing Council due to take effect at the start of the month have been suspended in the wake of a clash between the council and Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary.
The guidelines require judges to call for pre-sentence reports from the Probation Service with certain minority groups of offenders.
Critics warned they could lead to “two-tier justice” with lighter sentences for minority groups - and the appearance of discrimination against white, male and Christian offenders.
The Sentencing Council at first refused to withdraw the guidelines at Shabana Mahmood’s request.
But it has now agreed to suspend them pending consideration of new legislation that she favours to give power over such measures.
The former justice secretary’s views come in a wide-ranging interview released this week as part of the podcast series, "The Lord Chancellors", hosted by The University of Law (ULaw).
They will fuel the debate about sentencing in the UK and the role of the independent Sentencing Council in advising judges.
Chalk, who is now a partner with the international law firm Jones Day, adds that he backs proposals to remove some offences from the right to jury trial and for a new ‘intermediate’ court of a judge with two magistrates.
He has been in the lead on the idea, which was endorsed by the recent Times’ newspaper commission on criminal justice and is being examined by. Sir Brian Leveson in his review on the criminal courts.
Sir Brian recognises that doing nothing was not an option, Chalk adds. But he adds that “politics is the art of the possible” and that he would “gently encourage Sir Brian not to “try to boil the ocean.”
A separate review is due to report soon on sentencing under a fellow former Conservative Lord Chancellor, David Gauke.
But the review was a “missed opportunity, Chalk adds, because it excludes looking at sentencing for murder which was the crime responsible for dragging up sentencing levels in recent years.
Elsewhere in the interview Chalk backs a recent proposal by his former colleague, Jeremy Hunt, for a “Singapore on Thames” approach, extolling low taxes and low tariffs to galvanise the UK as a “going concern.”
He also favours the UK leading a “coalition of the willing” in Europe to reform the European Court of Human Rights rather than pulling out of it.