The Sentencing Council for England and Wales released new sentencing guidelines Wednesday that tell judges to consider their racial bias prior to sentencing. The guidelines pertain to unlawful firearm possession, discharge and acquisition offenses. The guidelines attempt to make sentences more consistent across the board.

The guidelines come in response to the 2017 Lammy report that found racial bias in the sentencing and treatment of minorities in the criminal justice system.

The guidelines are explicit, stating, for example, “Sentencers should be aware that there is evidence of a disparity in sentence outcomes for this offence which indicates that a higher proportion of Black and Asian offenders receive an immediate custodial sentence than White offenders and that for Black offenders custodial sentence lengths have on average been longer than for White offenders.” The goal is to draw the attention of the sentencers to disparities between sentences for white people and racial minorities.

Critics have said that even explicit reminders like these have not been effective in the past but the council is hopeful the guidelines will make a difference and will continue to update the recommendations.

The guidelines will take effect on January 1.