Seldom has an independent policy review commissioned by the government produced such a thorough, insightful, creative, rational and evidence-led report as that on sentencing now completed by David Gauke.
Mr Gauke, the justice secretary during the last period of Conservative government, and a solicitor by profession, is also to be commended for working on such a complex and vexed issue with such remarkable speed. His successor at the Ministry of Justice, Shabana Mahmood, has rightly accepted the vast majority of his recommendations, and, in a passionate performance in the House of Commons, rendered her party the additional benefit of putting her hyper-ambitious populist shadow, Robert Jenrick, firmly in his place. Easier said than done.
