The government is changing the law to stop the Sentencing Council issuing new guidelines to courts in England and Wales without the explicit approval of the justice secretary.
Under the new rules, Shabana Mahmood will have veto powers over any new sentencing guidance issued by the independent public body, the Justice Department said.
The change comes after a public dispute earlier in the year between the Sentencing Council and the government over pre-sentence reports for offenders from certain minority groups.
Announcing the new measures, Mahmood said “policy must be set by parliamentarians, who answer to the people”.
The new measure will be brought in as part of the Sentencing Bill, being introduced in the House of Commons on Tuesday.
The Sentencing Council is a non-departmental public body that sets out guidance for courts in England and Wales.
Both the justice secretary and the lady chief justice, who is the head of the judiciary, will be given individual powers requiring them both to approve any future guidelines before they can be issued by the Sentencing Council.
This means that if either oppose the guidance, it will not be issued.
The council will also have to seek approval from the justice secretary to sign off its annual business plan.
The Justice Department said the reforms do not interfere with the independence of judges in making individual sentencing decisions.
“Individual sentencing decisions will always be the responsibility of the independent judiciary – and this is something I will staunchly defend,” Mahmood said in a statement.
“However, policy must be set by parliamentarians, who answer to the people.
“It is right that we now have greater democratic and judicial oversight of the direction of the Council’s work and the final guidelines they publish.”
The move forms part of wider changes to sentencing policy, including measures to stop prison overcrowding, such as including Texas-style earned release sentences and tougher community punishment.
The new powers come after ministers intervened to block updated Sentencing Council guidance earlier this year, which would have seen judges having to consider the background of offenders from certain minority groups when deciding on a punishment.
Under the proposed rules, a pre-sentence report would have usually been necessary before deciding punishment for someone of an ethnic, cultural or faith minority, alongside other groups such as young adults aged 18 to 25, women and pregnant women.
Both the opposition and the government criticised the change.
Mahmood previously said the proposed guidelines amounted to “differential treatment” because pre-sentence reports were encouraged for some but not others.
Conservative shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said they were biased “against straight white men” and amounted to “two-tier justice”.
Official figures show that offenders from ethnic minorities consistently get longer sentences than white offenders for indictable offences.
Mahmood had asked the Council to reconsider its guidance for judges earlier this year but it rejected her request, arguing the rules would ensure courts had the “most comprehensive information available” with which decide an appropriate punishment.
The guidelines were abandoned after ministers actioned an emergency law to override them.