Assault and Attempted Murder Offences sentencing guidelines commence on 1 July 2021

The Assault and Attempted Murder Offences sentencing guidelines published by the Sentencing Council come into force on 1 July 2021. The guidelines cover assault offences including common assault and attempted murder, and new guidance for assault on emergency workers. This is the first time judges and magistrates in England and Wales will have specific guidance for sentencing offences of assault on emergency workers. The guidelines apply to adult offenders.

The new guidelines follow revision of previous guidelines. Details of the revisions made to the guidelines and the Council’s reasons for making them, are set out in the consultation response document.

The new guidelines include

• A new high-culpability factor of “intention to cause fear of serious harm, including disease transmission” in the common assault guideline
• A new aggravating factor of “deliberate spitting or coughing” in the common assault and assault causing Actual Bodily Harm (ABH) offences guidelines
• A new high-culpability factor of strangulation to include asphyxiation and suffocation in all guidelines except attempted murder
• A revised high-culpability factor of “victim obviously vulnerable due to age, personal characteristics or circumstances” across all guidelines
• A revised aggravating factor of “offence committed against those working in the public sector or providing a service to the public, or against person coming to the assistance of emergency worker” which provides for increased sentences for assaults on an individual providing a service to the public
• A new aggravating factor for offence committed against a victim who is vulnerable by circumstances, which would include lone shop workers and workers in circumstances unable to escape an attack such as taxi drivers, is assessed at the highest level of culpability by the factor ‘Victim obviously vulnerable due to age, personal characteristics or circumstances’.

The full list of guidelines is shown below.

• Common assault – section 39 Criminal Justice Act 1988; Racially/religiously aggravated Common assault – section 29 Crime and Disorder Act 1998; Assault on Emergency Worker – section 1 Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018
• Assault with intent to resist arrest – section 38 Offences Against the Person Act 1861
• Assault occasioning actual bodily harm – section 47 Offences Against the Person Act 1861; Racially/religiously aggravated ABH – section 29 Crime and Disorder Act 1998
• Inflicting grievous bodily harm/Unlawful wounding – section 20 Offences Against the Person Act 1861; Racially/religiously aggravated GBH/Unlawful wounding – section 29 Crime and Disorder Act 1998
• Causing grievous bodily harm with intent to do grievous bodily harm/Wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm – section 18 Offences Against the Person Act 1861.

• Attempted murder – s1(1) Criminal Attempts Act 1981