2024 No. 654

Criminal Law, England And Wales

The Sentencing Act 2020 (Special Procedures for Community and Suspended Sentence Orders) Regulations 2024

Made

Laid before Parliament

Coming into force

The Secretary of State makes these Regulations in exercise of the powers conferred by section 395A(1), (3), (4) and (5) of the Sentencing Act 20201:

Citation, commencement and extent1

1

These Regulations may be cited as the Sentencing Act 2020 (Special Procedures for Community and Suspended Sentence Orders) Regulations 2024.

2

These Regulations extend to England and Wales.

3

These Regulations come into force on 14th June 2024.

Special procedures for community and suspended sentence orders

2

A community order2 or suspended sentence order3 qualifies for special procedures for the purposes of a relevant provision4 if the following four conditions are met.

3

The first condition is that the proposed order is made within the period of 18 months beginning with the day on which these Regulations come into force.

4

The second condition is that the court making the order is the Crown Court sitting at Bristol.

5

The third condition is that the person who is to be subject to the order is—

a

a person aged 18 or over at the date of conviction of the offence to which the order relates; and

b

not a relevant offender as defined at section 80(2) of the Sexual Offences Act 20035 at the date of conviction of the offence to which the order relates.

6

Subject to regulation 7, the fourth condition is that none of the offences to which the proposed order relates is—

a

an offence under section 1 or section 1A of the Prevention of Crime Act 19536;

b

an offence under Part 1 of the Firearms Act 19687;

c

an offence under section 139, section 139A, section 139AA, section 141 or section 141A of the Criminal Justice Act 19888;

d

an offence under section 6 of the Offensive Weapons Act 20199; or

e

an offence listed in paragraphs 1 to 35C of Schedule 3 to the Sexual Offences Act 200310.

7

But the fourth condition will be met where—

a

any of the offences to which the order relates is an offence under section 1 of the Prevention of Crime Act 1953 or section 139 or 139A of the Criminal Justice Act 1988;

b

the person who is to be subject to the order has not previously been convicted of an offence mentioned in sub-paragraphs (a) to (d) of regulation 6; and

c

the person who is to be subject to the order has not, before the date of conviction of the offence to which the order relates, been convicted of an offence mentioned in sub-paragraph (a) of this regulation.

Edward ArgarMinister of StateMinistry of Justice
EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

The Sentencing Act 2020, as amended by the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, makes provision for special procedures to apply to community orders and suspended sentence orders in certain cases.

The special procedures give both magistrates’ courts and the Crown Court the power to require regular reviews of community and suspended sentence orders in certain cases. A progress report will be produced by probation services for the review hearing and the court may make amendments to certain conditions of the order on considering the report and the outcome of the review discussion. Incentives may be ordered by varying the frequency of review hearings or altering other parts of the order to recognise positive progress. The court may find that a breach of the order has occurred in which case they may hold a breach hearing where they may make amendments to the order and may commit to custody for up to 28 days on no more than 3 occasions during the order.

Section 395A of the Sentencing Act 2020 provides a power for regulations to specify the community or suspected sentence orders which may qualify for special procedures, including by reference to the courts by which the orders are made, the persons who are subject to the orders and the offences to which the orders relate. These Regulations make provision for a period of 18 months from the date they come into force, during which orders may be made which qualify for special procedures.

These Regulations provide that the Crown Court sitting in Bristol may make qualifying orders.

These Regulations detail certain eligible categories of individuals who may be made subject to an order qualifying for special procedures. The individual must be aged 18 or over at the date of conviction. Persons who are subject to notification requirements as defined at section 80(2) of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 at the date of conviction of an offence to which an order is made will not be eligible to be the subject of an order qualifying for special procedures.

These Regulations also set out certain categories of offences where an order qualifying for special procedures cannot be made. These include sexual offences and weapons offences. Exception is made for first-time possession offences where these relate to knives or bladed weapons and the offender has not previously been convicted of a listed weapons offence or a possession of a knife or bladed article offence. In the case of first-time possession offences outlined above the court will retain discretion to consider the suitability of the person to take part in the pilot scheme.

A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no, or no significant impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen.