Sentencing Guidelines (Pre-sentence Reports) Bill: HL Bill 99 of 2024–25

Approximate read time: 25 minutes

The bill would prevent sentencing guidelines from referring to personal characteristics of an offender such as race, religion or belief, and cultural background in Sentencing Council guidance on when a pre-sentence report should be requested. Pre-sentence reports assist judges and magistrates in England and Wales when they are deciding the most suitable sentence to give an offender.  

The bill was introduced in response to the Sentencing Council’s revised ‘Imposition of community and custodial sentence’ guideline which was scheduled to take effect from 1 April 2025. The revised guideline included a list of cohorts where a pre-sentence report would “normally be considered necessary”. This included if an offender was from an ethnic, minority, cultural minority and/ or faith community. The government objected to the inclusion of this cohort on the basis that it amounted to differential treatment. It has introduced this bill to block the revised guideline from taking effect.

The government is fast-tracking the bill. It was passed to the House of Lords unamended. The bill’s second reading in the House of Lords is scheduled to take place on 7 May 2025.