Government response to Sentencing Guidelines Council's draft guidelines on assault published
27 Feb 2008
The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice expressed contentment with the proposed approach to sentencing for attempted murder. He drew attention to the situation where an offender habitually carries a weapon and then uses it spontaneously to inflict really serious injury and suggested that the Council might like to address this explicitly. The letter expresses broad agreement with most of the starting points and sentencing ranges in the assaults guideline, but argues that custody is not necessary for first time offenders pleading not guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm where the injury inflicted is minor and non-permanent.
In the assaults on children guideline, again broad agreement with the approach proposed by the SGC is expressed. But the Secretary of State proposed changes to the drafting in relation to circumstances where a defendant is convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm but claims that their intention was to administer lawful discipline against their child and that the injury was neither intended nor foreseen. The Government does not agree that the defendant should be punished significantly less severely in those circumstances and has suggested drafting changes accordingly. The letter also draws attention to the possibility that a Newton hearing may be required to determine foresight or intention where this does not need to be established for the purposes of finding guilt or innocence of the offence and asks whether this should be addressed in the guideline. Finally, the letter questions why no reference is made to the potential availability of lawful chastisement as potential mitigation for child cruelty offences.
The SGC published the definitive guidelines on 20 February. These guidelines can be found here: http://www.sentencing-guidelines.gov.uk/