John Wadham, director of Liberty:
"It's a good day for impartial, fair British justice. Sentencing is part of the trial - and judges, not politicians, must be responsible for it in a fair system.

"Judicial sentencing doesn't mean soft sentencing - it means sound sentencing. Trial judges have all the facts in front of them and are best able to make the right decision.

"In the Roy Whiting case, the judge recommended fully 11 months ago that Whiting should remain in prison for the rest of his life. He should have been able to set that tariff - the Payne family should not have had to wait nearly a year for a politician to announce it in a Sunday newspaper.

"Politicians will always have one eye on how their decisions will
look in the tabloid press and in the party's focus groups. Judges have the most information and the most independence, to make decisions that match the seriousness of every case, not just those in the headlines".