Imposition of community and custodial sentences guideline consultation

What is this consultation about? The Sentencing Council is proposing to revise the Imposition of community and custodial sentences guideline. The existing Imposition of community and custodial sentences overarching guideline was issued on 1 February 2017. The Imposition guideline is the overarching guideline for general principles around imposing community orders and custodial sentences, and in what circumstances a custodial sentence can be suspended. It is also the main guideline for guidance on requesting pre-sentence reports and community requirements and includes a sentencing decision flow chart. More than six years after it was brought into force, changes to legislation, new case law and case management guidance, further evidence about the experiences of individual offender groups in the criminal justice and important sentencing research, alongside a variety of both general and practitioner feedback, led the Council to undertake a comprehensive