Coroners and Justice Act 2009

125 Sentencing guidelines: duty of court

(1) Every court—

(a) must, in sentencing an offender, follow any sentencing guidelines which are relevant to the offender’s case, and

(b) must, in exercising any other function relating to the sentencing of offenders, follow any sentencing guidelines which are relevant to the exercise of the function,

unless the court is satisfied that it would be contrary to the interests of justice to do so.

(2) Subsections (3) and (4) apply where—

(a) a court is deciding what sentence to impose on a person (“P”) who is guilty of an offence, and

(b) sentencing guidelines have been issued in relation to that offence which are structured in the way described in section 121(2) to (5) (“the offence-specific guidelines”).

(3) The duty imposed on a court by subsection (1)(a) to follow any sentencing guidelines which are relevant to the offender’s case includes—

(a) in all cases, a duty to impose on P, in accordance with the offence-specific guidelines, a sentence which is within the offence range, and

(b) where the offence-specific guidelines describe categories of case in accordance with section 121(2), a duty to decide which of the categories most resembles P’s case in order to identify the sentencing starting point in the offence range;

but nothing in this section imposes on the court a separate duty, in a case within paragraph (b), to impose a sentence which is within the category range.

(4) Subsection (3)(b) does not apply if the court is of the opinion that, for the purpose of identifying the sentence within the offence range which is the appropriate starting point, none of the categories sufficiently resembles P’s case.

(5) Subsection (3)(a) is subject to—

(a) section 144 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 (c. 44) (reduction in sentences for guilty pleas),

(b) sections 73 and 74 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (c. 15) (assistance by defendants: reduction or review of sentence) and any other rule of law by virtue of which an offender may receive a discounted sentence in consequence of assistance given (or offered to be given) by the offender to the prosecutor or investigator of an offence, and

(c) any rule of law as to the totality of sentences.

(6) The duty imposed by subsection (1) is subject to the following provisions—

(a) section 148(1) and (2) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 (restrictions on imposing community sentences);

(b) section 152 of that Act (restrictions on imposing discretionary custodial sentences);

(c) section 153 of that Act (custodial sentence must be for shortest term commensurate with seriousness of offence);

(d) section 164(2) of that Act (fine must reflect seriousness of offence);

(e) section 269 of and Schedule 21 to that Act (determination of minimum term in relation to mandatory life sentence);

(f) section 51A of the Firearms Act 1968 (c. 27) (minimum sentence for certain offences under section 5 etc);

(g) sections 110(2) and 111(2) of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 (c. 6) (minimum sentences for certain drug trafficking and burglary offences);

(h) section 29(4) and (6) of the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006 (c. 38) (minimum sentences for certain offences involving firearms).

(7) Nothing in this section or section 126 is to be taken as restricting any power (whether under the Mental Health Act 1983 (c. 20) or otherwise) which enables a court to deal with a mentally disordered offender in the manner it considers to be most appropriate in all the circumstances.

(8) In this section—

• “mentally disordered”, in relation to a person, means suffering from a mental disorder within the meaning of the Mental Health Act 1983;

• “sentencing guidelines” means definitive sentencing guidelines.