The Attorney General’s Office helped more victims and their
families get justice last year, after 137 criminals had
their sentences increased under the Unduly Lenient Sentence
(ULS) scheme.
New statistics out today reveal the Law Officers (Attorney
and Solicitor General) referred 173 sentences to the Court
of Appeal in 2017 because they believed them to be far too
low.
The ULS scheme allows
victims of crime, prosecutors and members of the public to
ask for certain Crown Court sentences to be reviewed if
they think the sentence is far too low. The Law Officers
then ask the Court of Appeal to review the sentence to have
it increased if they believe the judge made a gross error
in sentencing.
Sentences were increased for crimes including murder,
manslaughter, rape and other serious sexual offences,
causing death by dangerous driving, modern slavery, false
imprisonment, child cruelty, burglary, robbery, perverting
the course of justice, and drugs.
Of the 137 offenders who had their sentences increased,
these related to crimes in the following categories: Rape
and serious sexual offences (58), homicide and related
(15), acquisitive offences (such as burglary, theft, and
fraud) (19), serious assault offences (19), firearm-related
(8), drug-related (4), kidnap and false imprisonment (2),
and other offences (12).
The Solicitor General QC MP said:
The Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme allows victims of
crime, their families and the public to ask for a review
of certain sentences that they believe are far too low.
We only have 28 days from the date of sentencing to refer
a case to the Court of Appeal. Unusually, there is no way
to extend this deadline – this means we require a
referral very early in the process to be able to deal
with it in time.
A sentencing exercise is not an exact science and in the
vast majority of cases, judges get it right. For an
offence there is a range within which a judge might
sentence properly. The scheme is available to ensure that
the Court of Appeal can review cases where there may have
been a gross error in the sentencing decision.
In 2017, 943 referrals were received by the Attorney
General’s Office, a slight increase from the 837 referrals
the previous year. The Attorney and Solicitor General
referred 173 sentences to the Court of Appeal that they
thought needed looking at again, compared to 190 in 2016.
137 sentences resulting in increases is a very small
proportion of the 80,000 Crown Court cases heard each year,
but the ULS scheme is there
to allow adjustment of those sentences where an increase is
warranted.
The scheme was extended last year to include an additional
19 terror-related offences including supporting extremist
organisations, encouraging acts of terrorism or failing to
disclose information about a terrorist attack.
The scheme was introduced after public outcry over the
lenient sentencing of the offenders involved in the 1986
rape of 21 year old Jill Saward. The victim was brutally
raped by a gang of robbers at her father’s vicarage.
Anyone can ask for a Crown Court sentence to be reviewed
and you can also follow the progress of referrals made to
the Attorney General’s Office.
There are only 28 days from the date of sentencing to refer
a case to the Court of Appeal. This deadline cannot be
extended. In order to ensure we have time to properly
consider a case we ask that referrals are made early in the
process.
The ULS scheme only
applies to certain Crown Court offences. Details of the
offences that are covered by the ULS scheme are listed
on our website.
