Published on:
1 June 2023
Totality: Response to consultation
A summary of the responses we received to the consultation on the totality sentencing guideline.
This guideline sets out the approach for sentencing an offender for more than one offence or where the offender is already serving a sentence. Used alongside the relevant offence-specific guidelines or the General guideline, it provides sentencers with a framework for reaching a sentence that is just and proportionate to the offending as a whole.
The consultation ran between October 2022 and January 2023. We sought views on a series of changes to the existing guideline that would:
- give greater prominence to guidance on how the courts can achieve a just and proportionate sentence
- bring the guideline up to date to reflect changes in case law
- add an explanation of how to approach sentencing offences committed before other offences for which an offender has already been sentenced
- provide more examples showing how the guideline might apply to certain situations, and
- make the guideline easier to use and navigate while retaining the existing level of detail