The Sentencing Review
The Government has today (22 May 2025) published its much-anticipated Sentencing Review which effectively sets the policy direction for criminal justice for the rest of this Government. The review was led by the former (Conservative) Lord Chancellor, David Gauke and its remit was to follow “3 core principles to ensure a sustainable justice system”:
- make sure prison sentences punish serious offenders and protect the public, and there is always the space in prison for the most dangerous offenders
- look at what more can be done to encourage offenders to turn their backs on a life of crime, and keep the public safe by reducing reoffending
- explore tougher punishments outside of prison to make sure these sentences cut crime while making the best use of taxpayers’ money
This blog post summarises the headline recommendations with more detailed analysis provided in a series of blog posts over the next few days.
Final Report
This final report document is 192 pages long and contains a wide range of recommendations. In his foreword Mr Gauke makes it clear that the Review’s principal task was to to put the prison population on a sustainable footing, ensuring that in the future further emergency releases would not be necessary.
He has delivered on that, setting out proposals in which some people who currently receive custodial sentences are, instead, punished in the community and that some of those who still receive custodial sentences spend less time in prison than was previously the case. The combined effect of five key recommendations in the Review is estimated to reduce the prison population by around 9,800.
However, the Review does not stop there, it also sets out a range of recommendations to address other challenges which continue to place the prison system under pressure.
Probation is central
Mr Gauke is explicit about the main challenge the Government faces to ensure that changes to sentencing policy do not result in higher levels of crime and increased numbers of victims. If, for example, more offenders are to receive community sentences, those sentences need to be effective and properly enforced. If prisoners are to be released earlier than previously expected, victims and the wider public are entitled to be reassured that action is taken to prevent reoffending.
Mr Gauke makes it clear that if his recommendations are to make things better and not worse, there needs to be a well-resourced, fully functioning probation service. This is something that Probation Chief Inspector Martin Jones makes abundantly clear is very far from the current situation.
Technology
The review puts a lot of faith in the potential for technology to play an important role in reforming the criminal justice system including more electronic monitoring and helping with the ever-increasing administrative burdens of being a probation officer.
Recommendations
There are nine detailed chapters in the review, each with accompanying recommendations – a total of 48 in all. I summarise the nine chapter headings and overall recommendation for each below.
- Revisiting the statutory purposes of sentencing – recommends amending the statutory purposes of sentencing to emphasise the importance of protecting victims and reducing crime.
- Strengthening alternatives to custody in the community – recommends revising the sentencing framework to ensure sentencers can take full advantage of the flexibility of community sentencing, including financial penalties and ancillary orders.
- Reducing reliance on custody – the expected recommendation to legislate to ensure short custodial sentences are only used in exceptional circumstances.
- Incentivising progression from custody to community – prisoners can be released earlier through “earned progression” defined as rewarding compliance with prison rules.
- Taking a victim-centred approach – recommendations to improve public awareness and information on sentencing, more transparency about sentence lengths and better support to victims.
- Targeted approach to different groups – recommendations aimed at prolific offenders, women, drug and alcohol offenders, older offenders, Foreign National Offenders and sex offenders.
- The role of the probation service – more investment in the service itself and funding for Third Sector and community organisations.
- The role of technology – rapid roll out of technology in offender supervision, improved data sharing and explore use of advanced AI.
- A sustainable prison system – longer term recommendations including an external advisory body and transparency around the impact of new legislation on prison capacity.
I will look at each of these chapters in detail in a blog series over the next two weeks.
Conclusion
In his conclusion, Mr Gauke identifies two primary risks to his recommendations being effectively implemented.
The first is if the probation system is left unable to cope with the additional demands, the consequence will be growing pressures to make more use of custodial sentences (and, it seems to mean, the likelihood that many people are left without support and simply get caught in an endless round of prison release and recall).
The second is the same issue that Mr Gauke identified in part one of his report – that politicians of all parties must resist the recent trend of introducing more and longer sentences for every crime.
At first glance, these seem very substantial risks indeed.
Thanks to Andy Aitchison for kind permission to use the header image in this post. You can see Andy’s work here
One Response
If she isn’t doing anything for the extended sentance it’s not fair my partner is on an extended determinate sentance he is a first time offender and was only put on that sentance because he has bipolar and at the time of the trial he had relapsed people have done far worse crimes but getting out early where is the fairness In that