This timely Sentencing Law Update will examine key recent developments in sentencing law and their practical implications for practitioners and their clients. Recent legislative reforms have reshaped sentencing methodology, particularly in relation to the assessment of mitigating and aggravating factors and the scope of judicial discretion.
The session will review and address legislative reforms affecting sentencing methodology, including caps on mitigating discounts, limits on repeated reliance on mitigating factors, and changes to sentencing where offending occurs on bail, parole, or in custody.
In addition, the session will consider the evolving treatment of mental health issues within the sentencing framework, including how such factors are recognised and weighed in mitigation. It will also examine recent case law and practice relating to discharges without conviction under section 106 of the Sentencing Act 2002, with particular emphasis on the assessment of consequences and the balancing exercise undertaken by the courts.
The aim is to provide practitioners with a clear and practical understanding of how these developments are being applied in practice and how they should inform sentencing advocacy and advice.
