Bringing Offenders to Justice - Criminal Justice Penalties and Sentencing
02 Jan 2007
The purpose of this paper is to summarise Government's current policy on penalties and sentencing. In particular, it sets out where out of court penalties and other interventions fit in our overall approach. It is intended to provide information to support current public consultation exercises, such as those on sentencing 'Making Sentencing Clearer' and on anti social behaviour 'Strengthening powers to tackle Anti Social Behaviour', both of which were published in November 2006.
The paper sets out our intention to work with criminal justice system practitioners and the judiciary to develop a more comprehensive guide on how the police and prosecutors take decisions relating to the treatment of cases which could be either settled out of court or brought before the court. In other words, it addresses where the boundary should be drawn. We will also look at how we can make the process of decision-making more accountable and transparent. The paper invites comments on such a guide and provides a contact to whom comments can be sent by end March 2007 at the latest.