Tice calls for justice watchdog to act when petitioners say sentences too harsh
The miscarriage of justice watchdog should get new powers to review sentences, where petitioners fear they are too harsh or too soft, Richard Tice has said.
The Reform UK deputy leader successfully introduced his Criminal Cases Review (Public Petition) Bill to the Commons on Wednesday, which he named 'Lucy's Bill', after the jailed social media user Lucy Connolly.
Mr Tice suggested that where at least 500 people sign a petition asking for a sentence to be made tougher or more lenient, the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) should look at judges' decision-making.
The CCRC, which is already set up to review alleged miscarriages of justices, could then use its existing powers to refer cases to the appeal courts.
'Confidence in our judicial system and the sentences that are handed out is absolutely vital,' Mr Tice told MPs.
'I believe that the public, they want to trust our system but justice works when it is natural and fair and decent and the public believe that sentences are appropriate.
'If we lose that, then potentially we lose everything.'
Mr Tice warned that 'even noble, experienced, wise judges can get things wrong' and added the draft legislation he had proposed was 'known outside this House as Lucy's Bill'.
The Reform UK deputy leader has previously claimed Connolly was 'actually being treated as a political prisoner for political purposes', after he visited her at HMP Peterborough on Tuesday.
Connolly is partway through her 31-month sentence for inciting racial hatred, after she posted on X following the Southport murders last year: 'Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f****** hotels full of the bastards for all I care … if that makes me racist so be it.'
A bid to alter her sentence was dismissed at the Court of Appeal last month.
Mr Tice urged MPs to join him in a 'journey of imagination to a distant, respected democracy, where there is an elected leader of this democracy, where there is an independent judiciary, respected, where there is a respected legal system and, where there historically has been confidence amongst the people of this democracy for this judicial and legal system'.
He continued: 'But then imagine that a bad event occurs and the elected leader of that distant democracy effectively instructs the judiciary to impose the harshest of possible sentences on potential transgressors, the consequence of which is that – imagine, someone in a fit of anger puts out an offensive, inappropriate, bad tweet for a few hours, calms down, apologises, and withdraws that online information and tweet.
'But is then, because of that tweet, is then charged and sentenced in a very serious way – potentially a sentence of some 31 months that might be significantly more than the sentence given to a shoplifter, a robber, a mugger, a drug dealer and the like.
'And the thing about the confidence in a legal system is the comparativeness of sentences.'
Mr Tice said the convict in his story – a reference to Connolly – was 'allegedly the recipient of some violent maltreatment in prison', and added when he finished: 'This is the United Kingdom, and in the last few months, this has occurred.'
He said: 'Maybe the public would have evermore confidence in a vibrant democracy, in our justice system, if it was like a system of a treble-check, safeguard of the sentences, so that without being able to impinge on the original judgment that is following a case.
'But that actually, let's say that 500 members of the public, if they signed a petition to ask the CCRC to reconsider the sentence, and if they felt within eight weeks that that sentence may be too lenient or too harsh, that they could then refer it through an appropriate court.
'I think that would give an extra level of trust and confidence in the fairness and the comparative appropriateness of sentences within our system.'
Mr Tice's Bill will be listed for its second reading debate on July 11.
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