1 Report
1. Pursuant to section 120 of the Coroners
and Justice Act 2009 the Justice Select Committee must be consulted
on proposed draft sentencing guidelines issued by the Sentencing
Council for England and Wales. The proposed Theft Offences Guideline
was issued by the Sentencing Council on 3 April 2014, with a closing
date for responses of 26 June 2014. It will provide, in a single
document, up-to-date guidance to replace the existing 2008 Guideline
Theft and burglary in a building other than a dwelling,
and the guidance on theft offences contained within the Magistrates'
Court Sentencing Guideline.
2. The draft guideline is split into
separate guidelines for (i) theft from a shop or stall (ii) general
theft (iii) abstracting electricity (iv) making off without payment
(v) handling stolen goods and (vi) going equipped for theft or
burglary.
3. For our consideration of the proposed
Guideline, on 2 July 2014 we held a seminar with a number of key
stakeholders to consider various matters, namely the guideline's
treatment of culpability and harm factors, mitigating and aggravating
factors, and sentence levels, with particular reference to the
use of short custodial sentences. We would like to thank all those
who attended our seminar. We are also grateful to the Sentencing
Council for agreeing that we could submit comments to them after
the conclusion of their formal consultation period.
4. We publish this short report to draw
the House's attention to this Guideline, and to our views on it,
which are set out in the annexed letter to the Sentencing Council.
We also annex a list of organisations which were represented at
our seminar.
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