Violent Crime Reduction Bill

In considering penalties for new offences, existing penalties for related offences were used as guidance. This includes, in the case of unlawful possession of a prohibited firearm, a minimum sentence of five years. Amendment No. 117G would remove the provision of a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in the case of a prohibited firearm being given to another person to mind and when the offender is an adult in England and Wales. In robustly tackling gun crime, we must take tough measures and avoid creating additional anomalies in the sentencing regimes. The penalties for this new offence were looked at in the light of existing offences and are in line with those applicable for offences of possession of weapons. This includes the five-year minimum sentence for possession of a prohibited firearm. These penalties are not disproportionate when you take into account the serious nature of the offence. I am sure that the noble Lord would not dismiss that point. By diluting the penalties, we would create a measure that maintained the advantage for the offender of using someone else, who in some cases may well be a child—that is undoubtedly likely to be the case—to look after their gun. It is essential that we remove that anomaly, and the inclusion of the five-year minimum meets that need. Subsections (4) and (5) provide for not imposing the minimum sentence in exceptional circumstances, so there is that scope. It is worth pointing out that before the introduction of the minimum sentence, the average sentence for possession of prohibited firearms was 18 months. We need that important context. We cannot accept the noble Lord’s amendment. We do not support it, because of the need to remove the anomaly, and it is for that reason that we included the five-year minimum sentence.