The Criminal Justice Act 1988 (c 33) 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 ...

Title

The

title A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify either generation, an official position, or a professional or academic qualification. In some languages, titles may be inserted between the f ...

of this Act is:

Unduly lenient sentences

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is Eng ...

, the Act granted the

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

the power to refer sentences for certain offences to the

Court of Appeal A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of t ...

if the Attorney General feels that the sentence was unduly lenient, which is sometimes called the 'unduly lenient sentence scheme'. This provision entered into force in 1989, with its first application being in July of that year. The controversially-low sentences given to the rapists of

Jill Saward Jill Saward, also known by her married name Jill Drake (14 January 1965 – 5 January 2017) was an English campaigner on issues relating to sexual violence. She was the victim of a violent robbery and rape in 1986 at a vicarage in Ealing, Lond ...

was one impetus for the scheme, which was justified as ensuring that public trust in justice was maintained by correcting gross errors; in a 2022 answer to a

question in parliament A question time in a parliament occurs when members of the parliament ask questions of government ministers (including the prime minister), which they are obliged to answer. It usually occurs daily while parliament is sitting, though it can be ca ...

, the Government said that the scheme ensures that punishment is aligned with the severity of the crime and assures victims that "justice will be served". The

Law Commission A law commission, law reform commission, or law revision commission is an independent body set up by a government to conduct law reform; that is, to consider the state of laws in a jurisdiction and make recommendations or proposals for legal chang ...

is reviewing the law around criminal appeals and the unduly lenient sentences scheme is within this review's

terms of reference Terms of reference (TOR) define the purpose and structures of a project, committee, meeting, negotiation, or any similar collection of people who have agreed to work together to accomplish a shared goal. Terms of reference show how the object in ...

, beginning in July 2022 and with a

green paper In the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth countries, Hong Kong, the United States and the European Union, a green paper is a tentative government report and consultation document of policy proposals for debate and discussion. A green paper represen ...

expected in 2023. The scheme has been criticised on the grounds of having become "too politicised", and that "too many cases

re being Re or RE may refer to: Geography * Re, Norway, a former municipality in Vestfold county, Norway * Re, Vestland, a village in Gloppen municipality, Vestland county, Norway * Re, Piedmont, an Italian municipality * Île de Ré, an island off the we ...

referred, in some instances on most unusual grounds." The included offences are those which are

indictable In many common law jurisdictions (e.g. England and Wales, Ireland, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore), an indictable offence is an offence which can only be tried on an indictment after a preliminary hearing ...

and some

either-way offences A hybrid offence, dual offence, Crown option offence, dual procedure offence, offence triable either way, or wobbler is one of the special class offences in the common law jurisdictions where the case may be prosecuted either summarily or as i ...

, which are specified by a secretary of state; the list of applicable either-way offences has been expanded since 1994. Any member of the public may ask the Attorney General to refer a sentence to the Court of Appeal; the Attorney General has four weeks, beginning on the day following the sentence being passed, to consider the sentence's leniency and then to make the referral. Should a referral be made, the Court of Appeal will then consider whether the sentence is not merely lenient but ''unduly'' lenient and beyond the reasonable range available to a judge considering all the relevant information available at the time; if that determination is made, then the Court of Appeal will increase the sentence. The number of requests made to the Attorney General has increased since 2001, from less than 300 in that year to 1,006 in 2018, which, as of 2021's statistics, is the highest number of requests made. However, the number of cases referred to the Court of Appeal has remained within a roughly similar range during that period. Of those cases, the fraction of sentences were found to be unduly lenient has also remained in a rough band between 60% and 90%.

Section 141 - Prohibition of offensive weapons

This section creates an offence of manufacturing, selling, lending, giving, importing, hiring or exposing for hire

offensive weapon An offensive weapon is a tool made, adapted or intended for the purpose of inflicting physical injury upon another person. Legality England and Wales Under England and Wales' Prevention of Crime Act 1953, Section 1(1) states it is an offence to ca ...

s, but does not itself define which weapons it applies to. Subsection 141(2) allows a

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 ...

to define them; the only order currently is th
Schedule 1 of the Criminal Justice Act 1998 (Offensive Weapons) Order 1988
Specifically exempted from this section are

crossbows A crossbow is a ranged weapon using an elastic launching device consisting of a bow-like assembly called a ''prod'', mounted horizontally on a main frame called a ''tiller'', which is hand-held in a similar fashion to the stock of a long fire ...

and items subject to the

Firearms Act 1968 The Firearms Act 1968c 27 is a UK Act of Parliament, controlling use and possession of firearms. Since 1968, the act has been extensively amended. Following the Hungerford massacre, the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988 extended the class of prohibi ...

Various amendments have been made to the Schedule to add new weapons, most recently (August 2016) an amendment to this order came into force to include zombie knives in the list of prohibited weapons.

Section 171 - Commencement

References

Halsbury's Statutes ''Halsbury's Statutes of England and Wales'' (commonly referred to as ''Halsbury's Statutes'') provides updated texts of every Public General Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, Measure of the Welsh Assembly, or Church of England Measur ...

Bibliography

External links

The Criminal Justice Act 1988
as amended from the National Archives.
The Criminal Justice Act 1988
as originally enacted from the National Archives. {{UK legislation United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1988