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Crime: Sentences

My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department, John Reid, has made the following Written Ministerial Statement. I am informing the House of my intention to publish shortly a consultation document entitled Making Sentencing Clearer. This document meets the commitment I made in July, in the review of the criminal justice system, to bring forward with the Lord Chancellor and the Attorney-General a consultation on a number of sentencing and related issues. The consultation outlines proposals for building better public understanding and confidence in the way sentences are handed down by judges and magistrates. The consultation also makes proposals for providing sentencers with more flexibility in sentencing dangerous offenders and proposals designed to focus probation resources on the more serious offenders. Copies of the consultation will be placed in the Library and on the Home Office website.