Sentencing discounts dropped

Ken Clarke's sentencing proposals which would have seen prisoners who plead guilty at the earliest stage given 50% sentence reductions have been dropped.

The plan was aimed at making a saving of over £100 million for the Ministry of Justice, which is facing a 25% real terms budget cut by 2014/15.

Currently prisoners who pleaded guilty early can receive up to 33% off their sentence. The justice secretary had said extending this to 50% would give judges more discretion and reduce "unpleasantness" for victims.

However the plans hit controversy following a radio interview in which Mr Clarke used the example of rape and appeared to suggest that there were different categories of rape and only some were 'serious'.

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