New Guidelines Announced to Deliver Consistency and Clarity in Criminal Sentencing
16 Dec 2004
The SGC - an independent body comprising members of the judiciary, police, legal professions and those with substantial experience of promoting the interests of victims - has produced final guidelines on: the discounts on sentences to be offered in return for early guilty pleas; assessing the seriousness of crimes; and the implementation of new sentences. The guidelines seek to bring clarity to the law set out in the Criminal Justice Act 2003 and elsewhere, rather than constituting new law in themselves.
Commenting on the final guidelines, the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, Lord Woolf, who chairs the Sentencing Guidelines Council, said:
"The Council has produced its first guidelines to aid Judges and Magistrates in passing sentences which accurately reflect the objectives of legislators, as set down by Parliament. I have no doubt that being able to call on the diverse backgrounds and experiences of all those that serve on the Sentencing Guidelines Council has vastly improved the final guidelines. I am confident, as a result, that judges will be better placed to deliver sentences which are effective both as punishments and deterrents to offending and re-offending."
Ken Macdonald QC, Director of Public Prosecutions and a member of the SGC,
added:
"The principle of discounting sentences to offenders who plead guilty at an early stage in the legal process is set down by Parliament. What the new guideline on reduced sentences for guilty pleas does is increase the chances of convicting the guilty by bringing clarity to this process. It represents a tougher regime than existed previously, because the discount is automatically reduced if a guilty plea is not made at the first available opportunity. This clearer structure will encourage a more disciplined and more consistent application of discounts, as intended by Parliament. It will also result in earlier pleas that will benefit the administration of justice."
Anthony Edwards, member of the SGC and a criminal law specialist, said:
"The Council has welcomed and carefully reviewed all the responses to the consultation on the draft guidelines. In the final versions, we have made a number of changes where we have been presented with persuasive arguments, as well as providing more detail where our recommendations appear to have been misunderstood. For example, we have made it clear that murder should be treated as a special case in relation to the discounts for guilty pleas, to reflect the unique gravity of the offence. It is, of course, the legislation that provides for discounts to be offered in such cases."
For more information and to view the publication of the final Guidelines, use the link on the right to visit the Sentencing Guidelines website.