New Sentencing Guidelines for Manslaughter Offences

The Sentencing Council published its consultation on the proposed revised sentencing guideline for manslaughter in July 2017.

The main impetus behind the consultation was to review the way in which ‘one punch’ manslaughter was being dealt with and to create a guideline for all of the manslaughter offences. Previously there was a lack of consistency in the approach to sentencing these offences by the Courts, so a definitive guideline to promote a more consistent approach was needed.

The Sentencing Council has published the new sentencing guidelines for manslaughter which come into effect on the 1st November 2018.

This is the first time that comprehensive guidelines have been released from the Sentencing Council for manslaughter offences.

From a regulatory law perspective the guideline has included the ‘gross negligence manslaughter’ offence – which is mainly associated with health and safety cases. This offence is most commonly used as a result of a death in a work place, whereby an individual is deemed to have a duty of care to that individual.

The guideline for corporate manslaughter which came into effect February 2016 remains the same. The new sentencing guideline can be viewed here:https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Manslaughter_Definitive-Guideline_WEB.pdf

For further information on this or any other licensing or regulatory issues contact Associate Hannah Price 0115 953 8500.