Official guidelines said that companies and organizations that caused death through gross breaches of care should face 'punitive and significant' fines.
Source: Corporate Manslaughter and Health and Safety Offences Causing Death, Sentencing Guidelines Council
Links: Guideline | SAP press release
Date: 2009-Oct
The government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on sentencing policy and procedures. It rejected the suggestion that the aims of sentencing set out in the Criminal Justice Act 2003 were 'neither internally coherent nor consistently applied'.
Source: Government Response to the Justice Select Committee's Report: Sentencing Guidelines and Parliament – Building a Bridge, Cm 7716, Ministry of Justice, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Response | MPs report
Date: 2009-Sep
A report by a committee of MPs said that more attention needed to be paid to how sentencing contributed to public confidence in the criminal justice system, and to the cost-effectiveness of different sentences. A sentencing policy based on misconceptions about what the public wanted risked diverting resources away from a sentencing framework that was effective in reducing reoffending.
Source: Sentencing Guidelines and Parliament: Building a bridge, Sixth Report (Session 2008-09), HC 715, House of Commons Justice Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Action for Children press release
Date: 2009-Jul
An official advisory body began consultation on the principles that should apply when courts sentenced young offenders. It said that young people under 18 could differ significantly in maturity, and that the individual circumstances of each offender would need to be considered carefully: but the closer an offender was to age 18 when the offence was committed, and the greater the maturity of the offender or the sophistication of the offence, the closer the sentence was likely to be to that which would be imposed on an adult.
Source: Overarching Principles: Sentencing Youths, Sentencing Guidelines Council (020 7411 5551)
Links: Consultation document | Advice | SGC press release
Date: 2009-Jun
A study found that the majority of community sentences provided similar or better value for money and effectiveness than short-term prison sentences. In 2007 – the latest year for which data was available – diverting short-term prisoners who were drug-users to community-based sentences could have saved almost £1 billion over the lifetime of the offenders concerned.
Source: Matrix Knowledge, Are Short Term Prison Sentences an Efficient and Effective Use of Public Resources?, Make Justice Work (020 7031 1164)
Links: Report | Guardian report
Date: 2009-Jun
An official advisory body began consultation on sentencing for the most commonly committed drug offences. There was no evidence to show that lengthy sentences had the desired deterrent effect, and research suggested that drug 'barons' were more concerned about the loss of their assets than the threat of imprisonment. A more extensive use of confiscation orders was therefore proposed.
Source: Sentencing for Drug Offences: Consultation Paper, Sentencing Guidelines Council (020 7411 5551)
Links: Consultation document | SGC press release | Telegraph report
Date: 2009-Apr
A report said that government attempts to slow the rise in the prison population using community sentences had largely failed. There was evidence that community orders and suspended sentence orders, which came into effect in April 2005, were in fact contributing to a rise in prison numbers.
Source: George Mair and Helen Mills, The Community Order and the Suspended Sentence Order: Three Years On, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies/King's College London (020 7848 1688)
Links: Report | CCJS press release | Telegraph report
Date: 2009-Mar
A report said that the courts were failing to use community sentences to tackle mental health problems among offenders because provisions to do so were poorly understood by sentencers, probation staff, and health professionals.
Source: Husnara Khanom, Chiara Samele and Max Rutherford, A Missed Opportunity? Community sentences and the mental health treatment requirement, Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health (020 7827 8300)
Links: Report | Summary | SCMH press release | Community Care report
Date: 2009-Mar
A study tested the viability of conducting a study of sentencing in England and Wales using administrative data; and the practicalities of identifying records, collecting data, and managing procedures.
Source: Mandeep Dhami and Karen Souza with Anthony Bottoms and Natalia Vibla, Sentencing and Its Outcomes: Pilot study, Research Report 2/09, Ministry of Justice (020 7210 8500)
Date: 2009-Feb
The Coroners and Justice Bill was published, and given a second reading. The Bill was designed to modernize the coroners system (including a 'charter for the bereaved' to ensure that minimum standards of care were given at every stage of the inquest process; provide better protection for witnesses during criminal investigations; create a new Sentencing Council (to supersede the existing Sentencing Guidelines Council) to improve consistency and transparency in sentencing; remove barriers, and strengthen safeguards, to effective data-sharing in support of improved public services and the fight against crime and terrorism; and give statutory authority to the principle that United Kingdom courts should be able to take account of a defendant's previous convictions.
Source: Coroners and Justice Bill, Ministry of Justice, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 26 January 2009, columns 26-125, TSO
Links: Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | Charter for bereaved | Hansard | Hansard (second reading) | MOJ press release (1) | MOJ press release (2) | HOC research brief (1) | HOC research brief (2) | Amnesty press release | NO2ID press release | INQUEST press release | NIHRC press release | Christian Institute press release | Bar Council press release | JUSTICE briefing | Telegraph report | Guardian report | BBC report
Date: 2009-Jan
A report by a committee of MPs examined proposals in the Coroners and Justice Bill. It said that 'close and careful scrutiny' should be given to clauses providing for inquests without juries, and to the scope of powers granted to government to make orders in respect of data-sharing between departments.
Source: Coroners and Justice Bill, Second Report (Session 2008-09), HC 185, House of Commons Justice Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2009-Jan