Plans to update sentencing guidelines for offenders convicted of child cruelty offences in England and Wales – including causing or allowing death, serious injury or neglect – have been published by the Sentencing Council for consultation following changes to legislation.
The proposals introduce a new “very high culpability” level for the most serious cases to reflect new maximum sentences introduced by the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 for two offences:
- Causing or allowing a child to die, or causing or allowing a child to suffer serious physical harm; and
- Cruelty to a child including ill- treatment, abandonment or neglect.
The proposed revised guideline for “causing or allowing a child to die” would have a new sentencing range of up to 18 years in prison. The new sentencing ranges for “causing or allowing a child to suffer serious physical harm” and for “cruelty to a child” would be up to 12 years’ custody.
The proposed sentence levels for the new “very high culpability” levels take into account the increased statutory maximum sentences and are higher than the sentence ranges in the current guideline.
The culpability factors of other levels (high, medium and lower), the various harm factors and the sentence levels for all cases not falling into the new very high culpability level would remain the same.
The Council is seeking views on the proposed revisions from judges, magistrates and others with an interest in this area. The consultation will run from 4th August 2022 to 27th October 2022. The current guidelines came into force in 2019.
