The Sentencing Council for England and Wales promotes greater consistency in sentencing, whilst maintaining the independence of the judiciary. The Council produces guidelines on sentencing for the judiciary and criminal justice professionals and aims to increase public understanding of sentencing.
Do not retain this copy. Only the online version of a guideline is guaranteed to be up to date.
How offenders are sentenced in England and Wales
For an overview of how offenders are sentenced, take a look at this short video which gives the basics on what kinds of sentence there are and how judges and magistrates decide what sentence to give.
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Latest from the Sentencing Council
Sentencing Council welcomes two new judicial members
22 October 2020Two new judicial members – the Honourable Mrs Justice May and Jo King JP – have been appointed to the Read More
Assessment of the impact of the Dangerous dogs offences guidelines published
21 October 2020The Council has published an assessment of the impact of the Dangerous dog offences guidelines, which came into force in Read More
Guilty pleas, Sentencing children and young people: impact and implementation assessment – official statistics pre-announcement
20 October 2020The Council is to publish two analytical reports summarising assessments of the impact and implementation of: Reduction in sentence for Read More