Consultations

The Sentencing Council wants to hear your views. Take part in our latest consultations or see how we responded to your views on previous consultations.

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On 1 October 2023, two new guidelines from the Sentencing Council for sentencing offenders convicted of interfering with the administration of justice will come into effect.

The guidelines cover two offences: perverting the course of justice contrary to common law; and witness intimidation under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.

There are currently no sentencing guidelines for perverting the course of justice offences and only limited guidance in the magistrates’ courts for witness intimidation. 

Perverting the course of justice offences cover a wide range of conduct, from giving false information to police officers at a traffic stop, tampering with evidence or giving false information during a police interview. Witness intimidation includes pressuring witnesses to withdraw allegations or witness statements, or not to give evidence in court.

On 13 September, the Council published a research roundup summarising some of the research work we have recently undertaken or commissioned. Our analysis and research work is an integral part of the guideline development process. We draw on a range of different data sources, as well as undertaking our own research, both quantitative and qualitative, to inform our work. We would like to thank all the participants who have contributed to this work, in particular the sentencers whose contributions have helped to make sure that the guidelines are informed by the experience and expertise of the judges and magistrates who use them.

Could you help us develop and monitor the Council’s sentencing guidelines? We are looking for judges and magistrates to join our research pool and take part in occasional research exercises. These exercises help us to understand how guidelines are being used in practice, identify any issues and assess their potential impact on sentencing practice. They also make sure that the guidelines are informed by the experience and expertise of the judges and magistrates who use them.

If you are willing to be contacted occasionally to participate in short research exercises, please fill in this short form. Or, to find out more about the research pool, get in touch with us at research@sentencingcouncil.gov.uk.

Today the independent Sentencing Council publishes its response to recommendations arising from the review of sentencing in domestic homicide cases.

The review, conducted by Clare Wade KC and published on 17 March 2023, made six recommendations relating to the Council’s four guidelines for sentencing manslaughter offences and its guideline for sentencing offences committed in a domestic context.

As part of its response, the Council is consulting on proposals for adding an aggravating factor, ‘use of strangulation, suffocation or asphyxiation’ to the four manslaughter guidelines: manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility, manslaughter by reason of loss of control, gross negligence manslaughter and unlawful act manslaughter. The review recommended that strangulation should be included as an aggravating factor in the two guidelines covering diminished responsibility and loss of control. The Council believes that including such a factor in all four guidelines could help make sure that the seriousness of strangulation is not overlooked in sentencing and make the guidelines more consistent with those for assault, which include strangulation as a factor indicating higher culpability on the part of the offender.

The Council is also consulting on proposals to include a reference to coercive or controlling behaviour in all manslaughter guidelines. The review recommended that the impact of coercive control both by the offender towards the victim and by the victim towards to the offender should be recognised in the guidelines. Although the Council has not seen any evidence to suggest that the courts are currently failing to take coercive control into account in relevant cases, it considers that the proposed changes would reflect up-to-date terminology and could have a positive impact on public confidence. 

The Council’s proposals for including factors on strangulation and coercive control in the manslaughter guidelines are included in this year’s miscellaneous amendments consultation, which opens today.

The review made further recommendations to make changes to the manslaughter guidelines and the overarching domestic abuse guideline for sentencing offences committed in a domestic context:

  • to amend the manslaughter guidelines to indicate that use of a weapon is not necessarily an aggravating factor
  • to amend the unlawful act and gross negligence manslaughter guidelines to categorise as category B, high culpability any killing where death occurs in the course of allegedly consensual violence during a sexual encounter, and
  • to include an aggravating factor relating to non-fatal strangulation in the domestic abuse guideline.

The Council is not persuaded that these proposed amendments would be appropriate. The Council will consider the proposals as part of its ongoing, wider review of the manslaughter guidelines, but its current view is that these guidelines already take account of the issues raised in the review. The Council will also be reviewing the domestic abuse guideline in 2024. Its current view is that non-fatal strangulation is a factor best placed in relevant offence-specific guidelines, for example the assault guideline where strangulation is a high culpability factor.

Lord Justice William Davis, Chairman of the Sentencing Council, said:

“The killing of a partner is always an extremely serious offence. The domestic abuse guideline sets out in detail why that is so. The Sentencing Council considers there may be greater potential for the manslaughter sentencing guidelines to give specific guidance as to how seriously the courts treat the impact of coercive control and the uniquely personal act of strangulation in domestic homicide. That is why we are consulting on changes to the manslaughter sentencing guidelines.”

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Notes to editors

  1. The Council’s full response to the Domestic Homicide Sentencing Review is available on the Sentencing Council website. The review and the Government’s response are available on GOV.UK.
  2. The miscellaneous amendments consultation is open from 7 September to 30 November 2023. Any subsequent amendments to guidelines will come into effect on 1 April 2024. This is an annual consultation.
  3. There are four manslaughter guidelines, which came into effect on 1 November 2018: manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility, manslaughter by reason of loss of control, gross negligence manslaughter, unlawful act manslaughter.
  4. The Overarching principles: domestic abuse guideline came into effect on 24 May 2018.
  5. There is no sentencing guideline for murder. The sentencing regime for the offence of murder is statutory and set out in Schedule 21 to the Sentencing Act 2020.
  6. Sentencing guidelines must be followed, unless the court is satisfied that it would be contrary to the interest of justice to do so in all the circumstances of a particular case.
  7. The Sentencing Council was established by Parliament to be an independent body but accountable to Parliament for its work, which is scrutinised by the Justice Committee. Justice Ministers are accountable to Parliament for the Sentencing Council’s effectiveness and efficiency, for its use of public funds and for protecting its independence. Judicial Council members are appointed by the Lord Chief Justice with the agreement of the Lord Chancellor. Non-judicial council members are appointed by the Lord Chancellor with the agreement of the Lord Chief Justice.

For more information, please contact Phil Hodgson on 020 7071 5788 / 07720 158403 or email press.office@sentencingcouncil.gov.uk

The Council’s third annual consultation on miscellaneous amendments to guidelines opens today. 

We are proposing a series of changes designed to bring greater clarity and consistency to guidelines and reflect developments in legislation. The proposals include:

  • amending the Fraud guideline to give more recognition to the impact of no or very little financial loss
  • amending the guideline for sentencing individuals for fly tipping and other environmental offences to give greater emphasis to community orders over fines, and
  • including factors on strangulation and coercive control in the manslaughter guidelines as part of our response to recommendations in the Domestic Homicide Sentencing Review

We are also proposing amendments and additions to mitigating factors and their associated expanded explanations across the offence-specific guidelines, in response to research from 2021 examining equality and diversity in our work.

The consultation is open until 30 November 2023. Any subsequent changes will come into effect on 1 April 2024.

Today the Council has published a response to recommendations arising from the review of sentencing in domestic homicide cases.

The review made recommendations relating to the manslaughter sentencing guidelines and our guideline for sentencing offences committed in a domestic context.

As part of our response, the Council is consulting on proposals for making changes to the manslaughter guidelines to reflect the seriousness of strangulation and recognise more fully the role played by coercive and controlling behaviour both by the offender towards the victim and by the victim towards to the offender.

These proposals are included in our annual miscellaneous amendments consultation, which opens today.

On 4 October 2023, the Council will be publishing data collected from the Crown Court covering the factors taken into account when sentencing adult offenders for robbery (where this was the principal offence). These data were collected between November 2016 and April 2017 after the publication of the Council’s robbery guideline, which came into force in April 2016. The data collected were used in the robbery guideline evaluation which was published in February 2019. This will be the third release of the Council’s bespoke targeted data collections that it has moved to undertaking since the cessation of the Crown Court Sentencing Survey, and follows publication of the magistrates’ courts data collections covering the offences of theft from a shop or stall in December 2020, and drug offences in July 2022.

We are looking for an intern to work with social researchers on our Analysis and Research team. The team supports the work of the Council by building the evidence base through research and analysis. These internships offer an excellent opportunity to work closely with policy advisors, other analytical disciplines and the Sentencing Council itself and to have a direct influence on sentencing guidelines.

The internships are open to UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) doctorate students funded by AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC or STFC.

Visit the UKRI website to find out more and see whether you are eligible to apply.

Applications close at 4:00pm on 2 October 2023. Placements are due to start in early 2024.

We have published our annual report for 2022/23.

The report is Lord Justice William Davis’s first as Chairman of the Sentencing Council, and it documents the Council’s achievements in the context of the objectives we set in our five-year strategy, Sentencing Council strategic objectives 2021-2026, including developing and revising six sets of sentencing guidelines, holding consultations on six offence-specific and overarching guidelines and publishing externally commissioned research on effectiveness of sentencing, public confidence in sentencing and equality and diversity in the work of the Sentencing Council.

The Sentencing Council has published two new guidelines for sentencing offenders convicted of perverting the course of justice and witness intimidation offences in England and Wales.

The guidelines will ensure a consistent approach is taken to sentencing these two offences and make the process more transparent and easier to understand for victims, witnesses, offenders and the public.

There are currently no sentencing guidelines for perverting the course of justice offences. The new guidelines will provide the first guidance for sentencing these common law offences.

The current sentencing guidance for witness intimidation offences available for magistrates’ courts has also been updated. Witness intimidation includes pressuring witnesses to withdraw allegations or witness statements, or not to give evidence in court.

The new guidelines will come into force on 1 October 2023.

Related documents including the response to consultation, resource assessment and data tables can be found here.