Sentencing Council consults on revised Imposition of community and custodial sentences guideline

The proposed revisions reflect changes in legislation, developments in case law, recent sentencing research, and feedback from criminal justice practitioners.

The existing guideline, which applies to adult offenders only, came into effect in 2017. It sets out general principles for imposing community orders and custodial sentences and deals with other sentencing considerations, such as the requesting of pre-sentence reports.

The Council’s proposed revisions are designed to encourage courts to consider the widest range of circumstances when considering the full range of sentencing options available to them, in order to ensure that the most appropriate sentence, tailored to the individual offender and offence, can be imposed.

Revisions are being proposed for all the existing sections of the current guideline and include reordering and restructuring the different sections to align better with the steps the courts follow when sentencing.

The proposals include providing the courts with:

• more guidance on the circumstances in which it may be necessary to request a pre-sentence report,
• new sections on sentencing young adult offenders and female offenders, and
• new information on evidence regarding the effectiveness of rehabilitation when compared with short custodial sentences, based on external research reviewed for the Council.

The Council is seeking views on the draft guideline from judges, magistrates and organisations or members of the public with an interest in this area. The consultation will run from 29 November 2023 to 21 February 2024.

Sentencing Council chairman, Lord Justice Davis, said: “The Imposition guideline in its current form is one of the most important of all the guidelines the Council has produced. 

“It gives judges and magistrates guidance on when a community order may be appropriate, whether a custodial sentence should be imposed and, where a custodial sentence is appropriate, when it should be suspended.  The purpose of the guidance is to ensure a consistency of approach across all courts.

“The revised guideline updates and extends the current guidance.  It reflects new information and research in relation to young adult and female offenders and findings from research on the effectiveness of sentencing.   We hope that judges and magistrates will find the guideline clearer and easier to use than its predecessor.”