Child sex offenders who are caught before they can abuse a minor could face up to 14 years in prison under a proposed shake-up of sentencing guidelines that has been welcomed by Barrow’s MP.

The Sentencing Council, which sets out guidance to judges and magistrates in England and Wales, has launched a three-month consultation on proposals to treat would-be offenders based on the offence they intend to commit.

Many sexual predators are caught every year through police operations and citizen groups, either posing as children or under-age teenagers or as adults offering to traffic children to be abused.

These include several offenders in Barrow, including Neil Bamber, who was arrested after a sting by an online group.

The defendant was jailed for 20 months suspended for two years.

Paul Michael Goulding was also convicted of sending explicit messages to a ‘decoy’ account and is due to be sentenced.

Other offenders are in communication with a real child or other abusers, but are arrested before they commit physical abuse.

Under current guidance, published in 2013, some judges and magistrates have treated these offences as ‘low’ harm, even though the defendant intended to commit a very serious offence, or the lack of harm to an actual child has been treated as a mitigating factor in sentencing, meaning the offender gets a lesser punishment than those who succeeded in carrying out an attack.

The crimes affected by the proposed changes are arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sexual offence and causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

These would be treated with the same level of gravity regardless of whether a child was involved.

Currently the maximum penalty for these offences is 14 years in cases where a child comes to harm.

Under the proposed changes, judges and magistrates would have to base their sentence on what a defendant intended to do to a child, but would then be able to adjust sentences downwards based on what took place.

Furness MP Simon Fell said: “I would welcome this. Sentencing guidelines around abuse are not strong enough – a good example being that they recommend the same punishment for stealing a £500 bike and seeking out and viewing images of the most grotesque child abuse.

“If we’re serious about stamping out child abuse, the punishment must fit the crime.”

A consultation on the proposed changes will run for three months until August 13.