Consultations

Section 120 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 states that the Sentencing Council must prepare guidelines and must publish draft guidelines which must be subject to public consultation.  The Council will then make any amendments following the consultation and issue a definitive guideline.

The Sentencing Council wants to hear your views, whether you are an interested member of the public, a professional in the criminal justice field, an academic or someone with experience of the criminal justice system.

If you have views on sentencing in England and Wales, please email us entering “Have your say” in the subject line.

We are planning to consult on a number of issues in 2012 so please continue to visit the site and take part. In general, the Council is likely to undertake a public consultation around four times a year.

Our consultations

Sentencing Council consultations will follow a similar process each time. Firstly, a consultation questionnaire will be issued with a draft guideline and a resource assessment. These documents will set out questions, suggestions and context for those responding, to comment on.

Once all the feedback has been received, the Council will issue a response to the consultation as well as an executive summary and final resource assessment document.

The final stage of the process is for the definitive guideline to be published.