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Coroners and Justice Bill

May I make it clear that, if there are guidelines, I would expect the judiciary to follow the guidelines. What the guidelines do—and to this extent, I do not believe that they differ from the previous guidelines—is to set down what you, as a judge, in the normal way, should regard as the appropriate sentence. However, if there are circumstances that mean that you do not feel it would be just to apply the guidelines and you are satisfied as to that, you can depart from them. The previous test was framed differently. The previous test said that you must have regard to the guidelines, but it also went beyond that, because, as the Minister indicated, if you were going to depart from the guidelines, the judge had to give reasons for departing from the guidelines. The process of reasons, it seems to me, is doing no more than, in effect, saying, "These are the reasons why I do not think it is right to apply the guidelines". To put it in other words, "These are the reasons why I do not think it is just to apply the guidelines". Here, it is in different language and it may have the undesirable effect of introducing uncertainty, which would be unfortunate, but I do not think there is really much difference between the tests.