§ Sir Ivan LawrenceTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what decision he has reached on the recommendation of the Royal Commission on Criminal Justice about sentence discounts.
§ Mr. HowardI have decided to accept the Royal Commission's recommendation that the courts' existing practice of giving credit for early guilty pleas in the form of discounts on sentence should be more clearly articulated, by putting it on to a statutory basis. I therefore intend to table an amendment to the Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill, requiring those passing sentence to take account of the timing and other circumstances of a plea of guilty, and, where a discount is given, to indicate the fact. In so doing I have taken into account that early pleas of guilty not only save valuable court time, but also spare the victims of crime the anxiety which many feel at the prospect of describing their ordeal in evidence.
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