Hammond, R (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department

On 19 May 2003 the Judge made a written report in the form laid down by the Lord Chief Justice. It set out his findings as to the injuries that the child had received and made a recommendation to the Home Secretary that the claimant should serve a minimum term of 25 years as the tariff term.

Immediately after the decision, the Home Secretary stopped fixing tariffs for those sentenced to life imprisonment by a judge. Time was properly taken for consideration as to the procedure by which the tariff term should be fixed. In May 2003, the Home Secretary introduced an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill then before Parliament to give effect to a procedure for the setting of the tariff term by the judiciary.

On 12 June 2003, in giving its judgment in Easterbrook v UK [2003] 37 EHHR 812 the European Court commented on the fixing of a tariff term by the Home Secretary in 1998 for a non mandatory life prisoner convicted in 1988:

“The Court would observe that the sentencing exercise must necessarily be carried out by an independent and impartial tribunal, namely a court offering guarantees and procedure of a judicial nature. It was not a court that fixed the applicant’s tariff in a public, adversarial hearing and in the circumstances it is not sufficient to satisfy the fundamental principle relating to the separation of powers that the member of the executive who issued the decision was guided by judicial opinion. ”

The amending provisions put forward by the Home Secretary were enacted by Chapter 7 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 and Schedule 21 which were brought into force on 18 December 2003. Transitional provisions were contained in Schedule 22.