Keighley and Ilkley MP Robbie Moore is calling for a “common-sense” change in the law to ensure victims of serious crime are automatically told they have the right to appeal lenient sentences.
It follows a successful campaign by Mr Moore last year, which saw the jail terms of three Keighley grooming gang members increased by a total of eight years.
Despite the outcome, Mr Moore says he has “serious concerns” after a local victim revealed she was never told her abusers' sentences could be challenged.
Under the Unduly Lenient Sentence (ULS) scheme, the public can ask the Attorney General to refer a “lenient” sentence to the Court of Appeal for serious crimes including murder, robbery, rape and child abuse.
However, there is currently no legal rule forcing authorities to tell all victims that the Unduly Lenient Sentence (ULS) scheme exists, and the public have just 28 days to appeal a sentence, which cannot be extended under any circumstances if missed.
Mr Moore argued the 28-day deadline for victims or their families to challenge a sentence is the “same amount of time given to shoppers to return a parcel” and gives criminals - who can appeal their sentence beyond the 28 day limit - “priority over their victims.”
The MP met with Solicitor General Ellie Reeves MP to push for a mandatory duty to inform all victims and family members that they can challenge sentences and to extend the 28-day time limit.
While in opposition in 2021, Ms Reeves argued that the ULS scheme did "not go far enough” and called for a statutory duty to inform victims’ families of the ULS scheme “irrespective of whether they were witnesses in court."
Mr Moore says he will now take the matter to the Ministry of Justice and the Home Secretary to push for changes to the law.
Robbie Moore MP said:
“Victims and families of horrific crimes shouldn’t need an MP, a lawyer, or sheer luck to understand their basic right to challenge the sentece of their abusers. The law should require it.
Worse still, it cannot be right that there is a strict 28 day time limit for victims and families to ask for a sentence to be reviewed, but criminals themselves can appeal their own sentences beyond te 28 day limit. This leaves grieving families with fewer rights than the very offenders who harmed them.
It’s insulting - 28 days is the same window given to shoppers to return a parcel.
I want to see a new mandatory duty to inform all victims and their families about the ULS scheme and an extension to the 28 day deadline for challenge.
That’s why it was so important to raise these proposals for change with the Solicitor General this month, further to raising them in the House of Commons.
To me, these are common-senses changes and I want to work on a cross-party basis with the Home Secretary, Solicitor general and Ministry of justice to help change the law."
