He said: \u201cI hope the Government will do it because I think it can be done very quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they don\u2019t, we will force an amendment to appropriate legislation. But actually, my position is to invite the Government to get on with it, to offer Labour\u2019s support so this could go through very, very quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t the first case. The Government has been dragging its heels on this. Get on with it, for the sake of these victims, and of course, the other cases that went before it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Labour\u2019s shadow justice secretary Steve Reed quoted Mr Chalk\u2019s words back to him on Twitter, and criticised the pace of delivery, saying:\u00a0\u201c\u2018Looking to change\u2019? Labour called for the law to be changed last year to force criminals to attend sentencing.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour predecessor said he agreed but did nothing. Now you are only \u2018looking at\u2019 it. Victims have suffered enough. Get on with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Having once seen someone in the United States bound and gagged in court, I don\u2019t think that that is an appropriate solution<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told broadcasters on Monday: \u201cIt\u2019s cowardly that people who commit such horrendous crimes do not face their victims and hear first-hand the impact that their crimes have had on them and their families and loved ones.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are looking, and have been, at changing the law to make sure that that happens and that\u2019s something that we\u2019ll bring forward in due course.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Lord Thomas, a cross-bench peer and former Lord Chief Justice, voiced caution on any attempt to use force to require people attend.<\/p>\n
He told BBC Radio 4\u2019s PM programme that for sentences short of whole-life terms the \u201cobvious\u201d answer is to have powers to add to the sentence if the person convicted fails to attend.<\/p>\n
But he said the threat of a longer sentence would be \u201ccompletely pointless\u201d in the case of someone already receiving a whole-life order, such as Letby.<\/p>\n
Addressing the option of forcibly requiring the convicted to attend sentencing, he added: \u201cHaving once seen someone in the United States bound and gagged in court, I don\u2019t think that that is an appropriate solution.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said one alternative would be to broadcast the judge\u2019s remarks to the person\u2019s cell.<\/p>\n
Pressure is also mounting on the Government to give greater powers to an inquiry it has announced into Letby\u2019s crimes by putting it on a statutory footing and ensuring it is led by a judge.<\/p>\n
Downing Street suggested the inquiry could be put on a statutory footing but could not say when terms of reference would be published.<\/p>\n
Children\u2019s minister Claire Coutinho had earlier argued that a non-statutory inquiry would be \u201cmuch quicker\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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