The Sentencing Bill was introduced in the United Kingdom’s House of Commons on September 2, 2025, proposing several changes to the sentencing system in England and Wales. The bill aims to “reduce reoffending, protect victims, and restore public confidence in the justice system,” as well as reduce the demand for “prison places” that hold prisoners.
If enacted as written, the bill would implement recommendations from the Independent Sentencing Review, which the government commissioned in October 2024 after prison capacity was almost overwhelmed and resulted in the early release of a large number of prisoners. The Ministry of Justice advised that reducing the demand for the number of prison places by 9,500 would help ensure there were enough places for the most serious offenders. It commissioned the Independent Sentencing Review with the principal task “to put the prison population on a sustainable footing, ensuring that in the future further emergency releases would not be necessary.”
To help reduce the number of convicted offenders in prisons, the bill would introduce a presumption that custodial sentences of 12 months or less should be suspended—unless the offender has breached a court order, there is significant risk of harm to an individual, or exceptional circumstances exist that do not justify a suspended sentence. (Bill, cl. 1.) This implements a recommendation from the Independent Sentencing Review. The government rejected the review’s recommendations regarding the early release of serious offenders serving extended determinate sentences or life sentences, and the bill does not address these sentences.
If enacted, the bill would allow certain conditions to be added to community and suspended sentence orders that would require offenders to stay within a certain area, or prohibit offenders from entering specified locations, such as bars, pubs, and clubs, or attending sporting and public events, or driving vehicles. (Cl. 24.)
The bill would allow judges to impose an income reduction order at sentencing for an offender “serving a SSO [suspended sentence order] and who is deemed likely to generate a significant income” above an amount set by regulations. The bill would also change the statutory purpose of sentencing to focus on the importance of sentences in protecting victims. (Cl. 4.)
The bill would require both the lord chancellor and chief justice to agree to guidelines from the Sentencing Council before they are issued, and the lord chancellor would need to approve the annual business plan of the Sentencing Council, the independent body that develops sentencing guidelines for England and Wales. (Cl. 18-19.) The government stated these procedures are necessary to ensure oversight over the guidelines and build public confidence in the justice system. In a press release announcing the provisions, the Ministry of Justice described them as a “democratic lock over [the] Sentencing Council.”
These requirements were introduced in response to guidelines proposed by the Sentencing Council in spring 2025 that the justice secretary believed would create a two-tier justice system by “[singling] out differential treatment of ethnic minority offenders in sentencing” and subsequently undermining public confidence in the justice system. Parliament blocked the proposed guidelines earlier this year by enacting the Sentencing Guidelines (Pre-sentence Reports) Act 2025, and the Ministry of Justice stated, “[T]he Council should not be allowed to stray into setting policy without the direction of Parliament.”
Clare Feikert, Law Library of Congress
December 3, 2025
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