Criminal Law Legislation Update
| Date | 01 February 2012 |
| DOI | 10.1350/jcla.2012.76.1.743 |
| Published date | 01 February 2012 |
| Subject Matter | Criminal Law Legislation Update |
Criminal Law
Legislation Update*
Laura McGowan†
Primary legislation
The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 received Royal
Assent on 15 September 2011.
Consultation Papers
The Sentencing Council published a consultation paper on 15 Septem-
ber 2011 on three overarching aspects of sentencing: totality; offences
taken into consideration; and allocation (available at http://sentencing
council.judiciary.gov.uk/sentencing/consultations-current.htm). Responses are
requested by 8 December 2011.
The draft guidelines aim to ensure that the principles in each of these
areas of sentencing practice are applied consistently throughout courts
in England and Wales.
Totality is the principle that the total sentence for a number of
offences considered together should be just and proportionate, reflecting
the overall seriousness of the criminality when all the offences are
considered together. Average custodial sentence lengths, and the pro-
portion of offenders receiving the various types of sentence, will not
change as a result of the introduction of the guideline. However, the
guideline gives emphasis to the message that the court is considering all
the offending before it and can properly pass a suitably severe sentence
to take into account the commission of multiple offences.
The Sentencing Council is also consulting on its draft guideline for
Offences Taken into Consideration (TICs). TICs are those offences that
an offender has not been prosecuted for, but which he admits and asks
the court to consider when being sentenced for another offence for
which he has been prosecuted. While there is well-established practice
in relation to TICs, there is no single source of guidance about the
approach the courts should take. The Council therefore felt it important
to set out the general principles, procedure and approach. The draft
guideline is again intended to bring clarity and consistency of approach
throughout courts in England and Wales to this long-standing conven-
tion. Like the totality draft guideline, it is not intended to bring about
changes in sentencing practice other than where the application of the
guideline might lead to greater consistency of approach.
* As at 7 November 2011.
† Barrister, Carmelite Chambers; e-mail: laurajmcgowan@gmail.com.
4The Journal of Criminal Law (2012) 76 JCL 4–5
doi:10.1350/jcla.2012.76.1.743
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