Credit for guilty plea and mitigation

The Sentencing Code is the name given to Parts 2 to 13 of the Sentencing Act 2020 (SA 2020) which together comprise the consolidated rules of procedure for the sentencing of criminal offences by the criminal courts in England and Wales. It replaced the huge volume of pre-existing legislation which provided the procedural requirements to be followed by magistrates’ courts, Crown Courts and the Court of Appeal Criminal Division and is the sole reference point for the rules to be followed when sentencing convicted offenders.

Criminal lawyers practising in the criminal courts should be familiar with the Sentencing Code in conjunction with the Criminal Procedure Rules 2025 (CrimPR 2025), SI 2025/909 and any applicable sentencing guidelines when representing individuals or corporate bodies convicted for criminal offences.

Practice Note: Sentencing Code introduces the Sentence Code, explains the background to the Sentencing Code and what is meant by the ‘clean sweep’, confirms the limits to the scope of the Sentencing Code and highlights the structure of the Sentencing Code to assist practitioners to locate the relevant provisions they require.

Once a defendant has

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