The Sentencing (Pre-consolidation Amendments) Act 2020 (c. 9) is an act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

to make amendments to existing

legislation Legislation is the process or result of enrolled bill, enrolling, enactment of a bill, enacting, or promulgation, promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous Government, governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law i ...

in order to facilitate the future enactment of the Law Commission's Sentencing Code (to be enacted as the

Sentencing Act 2020 In law, a sentence is the punishment for a crime ordered by a trial court after conviction in a criminal procedure, normally at the conclusion of a trial. A sentence may consist of imprisonment, a fine, or other sanctions. Sentences for multipl ...

). The intention of the act was to correct minor errors and to streamline the law in respect of areas which are to be consolidated under the Sentencing Act 2020. The overall purpose of the law (together with the Sentencing Act 2020) is to remove historic and redundant layers of sentencing procedural legislation without introducing new sentencing law.

Provisions

Main provisions

Clause 1 provides for a " clean sweep" to remove the need to identify and apply historic versions of the law, minimising the use of complex transitional provisions. The clean sweep is subject to exceptions to ensure that no offender is subject to a greater penalty than that available at the time of the offence, or subject to a minimum or mandatory sentence that did not apply at the time of the offence. Clause 2 provides for amendments and modifications of existing sentencing legislation to allow for a consistent consolidation and gives powers to the Secretary of State to make further amendments by way of

statutory instrument In many countries, a statutory instrument is a form of delegated legislation. United Kingdom Statutory instruments are the principal form of delegated or secondary legislation in the United Kingdom. National government Statutory instrument ...

. The remaining clauses deal with interpretation, how regulations may be laid, the commencement, extent and short title of the act.

Schedules

Schedule 1 provides for a list of exemptions to the "clean sweep" which are required in order to comply with

Article 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights Article 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights sets limits on criminalisation, forbidding ''ex post facto'' criminalisation by signatory countries. Text Case law *Kokkinakis v. Greece (no violation found, 8:1) * Vassili Kononov (no violati ...

and so as not to breach common law standards of fairness. Schedule 2 provides for pre-consolidation amendments to existing legislation to enable the enactment of consolidation. Such amendment include amendments to the

Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 The Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 (c.6) is a consolidation Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that brings together parts of several other Acts dealing with the sentencing treatment of offenders and defaulters. It ...

Criminal Justice Act 2003 The Criminal Justice Act 2003 (c. 44) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is a wide-ranging measure introduced to modernise many areas of the criminal justice system in England and Wales and, to a lesser extent, in Scotland an ...

Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 The Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 (c 4) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which makes significant changes in many areas of the criminal justice system in England and Wales and, to a lesser extent, in Scotland and Nor ...

Armed Forces Act 2006 The Armed Forces Act 2006 (c 52) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It came into force on 31 October 2006. It replaces the three separate Service Discipline Acts (the Army Act 1955, the Air Force Act 1955 and the Naval Discipli ...

and other primary and secondary legislation relating to sentencing.

References

{{reflist United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 2020