Miscellaneous amendments coming into effect
On 1 April 2024, changes made to a number of sentencing guidelines in response to the Council’s 2023 Miscellaneous amendments consultation will come into effect.
The amendments, which apply to both magistrates’ court and Crown Court guidelines, are designed to improve clarity and reflect developments in case law and changes in legislation.
They include:
- amendments and additions to mitigating factors and their associated expanded explanations across sentencing guidelines. These include replacing the existing reference to pregnancy in the ‘Sole or primary carer’ factor with a dedicated factor for pregnancy, childbirth and post-natal care.
- changes to the manslaughter guidelines relating to strangulation and coercive control, in response to recommendations in the Domestic Homicide Sentencing Review
- amendments to the Fraud guideline to give more recognition to the impact on victims even where there is no or very little financial loss
- amendments to the guideline for sentencing individuals for fly-tipping and other environmental offences to give greater emphasis to community orders over fines.
A full list of all changes will be published on 1 April 2024 on the miscellaneous amendments page of the Council’s website.