§ MR. HANBURYI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the attention of the Government has been called to the great difference between the sentences passed in different Courts of Justice in this country for similar offences; and whether the Government are taking, or intend to take, any steps to remedy these inequalities in the present system of administering justice?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. ASQUITH,) Fife, E.The disparity to which the hon. Member refers has always existed, and, partly owing to the milder views of punishment which now prevail upon the Bench, it is, I believe, less serious both in its extent and in its consequences than at any previous time. 933 When a sentence appears to be excessive it can always be reduced by an exercise of the prerogative of mercy. When a sentence is too lenient, which, however, is, in my opinion, a case of much rarer occurrence, there is no means of correcting the defect. No one, so far as I am aware, has yet succeeded in suggesting a really satisfactory method of dealing with the problem—a method, that is, which would at the same time prevent inequalities and yet leave unfettered the discretion of the Bench to adjust the measure of punishment to the infinitely varied circumstances of particular cases.
§ MR. HANBURYThen the right hon. Gentleman proposes to do nothing in the matter?
§ MR. ASQUITHNot at present.