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
Assault and attempted murder – consultation launched on sentencing guidelines
16 April 2020We opened a consultation today on revised sentencing guidelines for seven assault offences, including common assault and attempted murder, and Read More
Publication of Assault Offences statistical bulletin
15 April 2020The Sentencing Council has published a statistical bulletin and data tables, detailing recent sentencing trends for assault offences. This is Read More
Publication of an assessment of the 2017 update to the Magistrates’ Court Sentencing Guidelines
24 March 2020The Sentencing Council has published an assessment of the impact and implementation of the 2017 update to the Magistrates’ Court Read More