A summary of the responses received to the fourth annual consultation on miscellaneous amendments to sentencing guidelines, and details of all guidelines affected.

In response to the consultation, the Council is making amendments to the content, language and presentation of a number of sentencing guidelines to improve clarity, reflect case law and new legislation.

The changes are substantial enough to warrant consultation but not so substantial that they require new guidelines to be drafted. They will come into effect on 1 June 2025 (with the exception of the revised Careless driving guideline which will come into effect on 1 July).

Amendments relevant primarily to magistrates’ courts

• Supplementary information on setting fines: new guidance on assessing relevant weekly income for those on a variable income
• New guideline for the offence of using or keeping heavy goods vehicle if levy not paid
• Careless driving: revising factors in the guideline so that they align with the newer guidelines for causing death and causing serious injury by careless driving and dangerous driving and replacing the reference to ‘pedestrians’ with ‘vulnerable road users’
• Drive otherwise than in accordance with a licence: adding wording to the guideline to clarify how it applies to offenders who are entitled to a licence but do not hold one
• Allocation guideline – various changes, including:
• changing the name of the guideline to Allocation and committal for sentence to clarify its purpose
• updating the legislative references
• amending the wording relating to community orders to clarify the circumstances in which a case should be committed to the Crown Court for sentence even if a community order may be the appropriate sentence
• adding a reference to the Criminal Practice Directions in the Committal for sentence section, and
• providing additional information by way of an Annex

Amendments relevant to magistrates’ courts and the Crown Court

• Assistance to the prosecution: adding a dropdown to guidelines summarising the approach to be taken
• Sentencing very large organisations: adding some guidance on sentencing very large organisations to relevant guidelines to encapsulate the approach set out in case law on setting the level of fines for a very large organisation.
• Revenue fraud: adding a sentence table for offences where the maximum sentence has increased from 7 years to 14 years
• Standard language in guidelines: establishing a standard form of wording in guidelines to ensure consistency
• Totality: adding further guidance on imposing a determinate sentence where there is an existing sentence and providing guidance on imposing a new community order alongside an existing order
• Shop theft and Benefit fraud guidelines: adding an expanded explanation to the mitigating factor ‘Offender experiencing exceptional hardship’ to clarify the purpose of the factor and its relationship to the ‘difficult or deprived background’ factor
• Wording relating to community orders in guidelines: adding a note relating to committal to the Crown Court to better align guidance in offence specific guidelines with the Allocation guideline
• Wording on mandatory minimum sentences: adding a reference stating where the burden of showing that exceptional circumstances exist lies
• Adding the aggravating factor ‘Offence committed in a domestic abuse context’ to more of the offence specific guidelines.

Response to consultation – html
Response to consultation – pdf
List of all changes made on 1 June 2025 (pdf)
Standard wording in guidelines for publication as at 30 May 2025
About the consultation