History

“The job of the Sentencing Council is to build on what has already been achieved – evolution not revolution.” Lord Justice Leveson

Find out here about the evolution of the Sentencing Council, from The Court of Appeal, to the Sentencing Advisory Panel, to the Sentencing Guidelines Council and finally the Sentencing Council.

The Court of Appeal

There have been judicially created sentencing guidelines in England and Wales for over 25 years. Since the early 1980s, the Court of Appeal increasingly laid down guidelines in the form of judgments. Many, albeit updated, are still regularly relied upon today. Even then, however it was relatively rare for the Lord Chief Justice to deliver guideline judgments and by the late 1990s, these judgments covered only a small proportion of offences.

Sentencing Advisory Panel

When drafting its judgments, the Court of Appeal was constrained by the material on which reliance could be placed. To resolve that problem, the Crime and Disorder Act 1988 created the Sentencing Advisory Panel (SAP). The Panel, chaired by a distinguished academic lawyer, was established to draft and consult on proposals for guidelines and refer them back to the Court of Appeal for their consideration and, in that way, to inform the issuing of a guideline judgment. The Court of Appeal was not obliged to accept the Panel’s recommendations but in most cases did so, sometimes with modifications. The important feature was that the laying down of guidelines remained under the control of the senior judiciary.

Sentencing Guidelines Council

In 2001, the Halliday Report recommended that new structures were required in order to move towards comprehensive sentencing guidelines and so it was that the Criminal Justice Act 2003 created the Sentencing Guidelines Council (SGC). The SAP continued to draft and consult on guidelines but the SGC, rather than the Court of Appeal, took ultimate responsibility for the creation and form of any guideline that was issued. Thus, the SGC came between the SAP and the Court which then focussed on construing the guideline and on determining specific appeals. It was chaired by the Lord Chief Justice and established with eight members of the judiciary and four others, the Director of Public Prosecutions, a senior police officer, a defence solicitor and a representative of victims groups: the Chairman of the SAP attended as an observer. Although a small step, it was the first time that anyone other than a judge had been involved in setting sentencing guidelines.

The Sentencing Council

The Sentencing Advisory Panel and the Sentencing Guidelines Council started the ball rolling and have created a significant momentum which has led to the new Sentencing Council. Judges and practitioners alike have constantly referred to their work which itself has changed the approach to this important aspect of criminal justice. The job of the Sentencing Council is to build on what has already been achieved – evolution not revolution.

To read more about the work of the Sentencing Council, see the section on Our Work.