Advice on legislation or legal policy issues contained in this paper is provided for use in parliamentary debate and for related parliamentary purposes. This paper is not professional legal opinion.
Briefing Note No. 06/1993 by Ryan Takach
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This paper examines the Sentencing Act 1989 and the body of law which has developed around section 5(2) of the legislation. It begins with an historical overview of the current statutory formula for calculating sentences for criminal offences. It then turns to an analysis of decisions of the Court of Criminal Appeal which govern the application of "special circumstances". It will be seen that the traditional aims of punishment as well as the desire to restore judicial discretion very much inform the cases where the additional term of custody has been extended beyond the one-third of the minimum term.
