Report on Mandatory Sentences - Law Reform Commission

(b)
England and Wales
2.154 In 2002 the Government published a White Paper entitled Justice for All. 352 The purpose of the
White Paper was to “send the clearest possible message to those committing offences that the criminal
justice system is united in ensuring their detection, conviction and punishment.” 353 It incorporated many
of the recommendations contained in the 2001 Halliday <strong>Report</strong>, 354 which had examined whether the
sentencing framework in England and Wales could be changed to improve results, especially by reducing
crime, at justifiable expense. While neither the 2002 White Paper nor the 2001 Halliday <strong>Report</strong> referred
to mandatory sentencing for firearm offences, there was a sense that a public appetite for a stricter
approach to sentencing existed. 355
2.155 During a House of Commons debate in late 2002, 356 the then Home Secretary was asked
whether he was aware of the aim of the London Metropolitan Police to get the minimum sentence for
carrying a weapon raised to five years. He responded that he was aware of representations having been
made and commented that “[t]here is good reason for treating the issue seriously and considering
whether we should add it to the Criminal Justice and Sentencing Bill.” 357 He was later to rely on this
statement as having been an indication of his intention to introduce minimum sentences for gun crime
from December 2002. 358
2.156 In the United Kingdom, however, firearms legislation has, for the most part, resulted from
reactionary responses to specific tragic events. In a 2006 Home Office <strong>Report</strong>, for instance, it was noted
that:
“Since the mid-1980s, a number of significant changes have occurred to the legislative and public
policy responses to gun crime and firearms more generally. Automatic weapons having been
banned by the Firearms Act 1937, semi-automatic rifles were banned by the Firearms
(Amendment) Act 1988 after the massacre of 16 people in Hungerford in 1987. Then a ban on
handguns was introduced by the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1997. This followed the Cullen
Inquiry … into the 1996 school massacre in Dunblane, Scotland, in which 16 children and a
teacher were shot and killed. Both the Hungerford and Dunblane massacres were committed by
lone gunmen with legally owned firearms. The UK now has some of the most restrictive firearm
laws in Europe ...” 359
2.157 In January 2003 two teenage girls, Charlene Ellis and Latisha Shakespear, were shot dead as
they stood outside a New Year’s party in Aston, Birmingham. 360 The incident was considered to be
indicative of a rising gun culture in England and Wales. 361 This was confirmed by Home Office figures
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
Justice for All Cm 5563 (Home Office, 2002).
Ibid at 11.
Making Punishments Work: <strong>Report</strong> of a Review of the Sentencing Framework for England and Wales (Home
Office, 2001).
Justice for All (Home Office, Cm 5563, 2002) at paragraph 5.2.
Hansard, House of Commons, Oral Answers to Questions, 2 December 2002, Column 594.
Ibid. Even before the provisions regarding mandatory minimum sentences were inserted, the Criminal Justice
Bill had been widely criticised by civil liberties’ groups. See: Tempest “Blunkett’s Bill under Fire” The
Guardian 21 November 2002.
Sparrow “Blunkett outlaws Use of Fake Guns” The Telegraph 6 January 2003; Vasagar and Ward “Five-Year
Jail Terms planned as Rise in Use of Illegal Weapons revealed” The Guardian 6 January 2003; and “Blunkett
confirms tough new Gun Penalties” The Guardian 6 January 2003.
Hales, Lewis and Silverstone Gun Crime: The Market in and Use of illegal Firearms Research Study 298
(Home Office, 2006) at 7.
Oliver “Birmingham Shooting Victims Named” The Guardian 3 January 2003.
Burke, Thompson, Bright, Hinsliff, Barnett and Rowan “Where the Gun rules and the Innocent go in Fear” The
Guardian 5 January 2003.
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