Sentencing corporate offenders

The Sentencing Council (SC), whose role it is to issue sentencing guidelines, has produced several offence-specific sentencing guidelines which apply specifically to businesses and other corporate bodies or organisations that have been convicted of criminal offences (corporate offenders).

The guidelines are intended to achieve a balance between certainty for prosecutors and defendants as to the likely sentence and flexibility to allow for variable organisation size and turnover and the type of criminal behaviour.

The SC also publishes a number of overarching guidelines, which should be considered in respect of all sentencing exercises, see Practice Notes: Sentences imposed following conviction and Sentencing criminal offences—sentencing guidelines and resources.

This Practice Note sets out the various offence-specific guidelines available for sentencing corporate offenders as well as providing links through to relevant content. It also draws together some key themes which are common to all of the guidelines.

Sentencing guidelines and resources for corporate offenders

The following offence-specific guidelines apply to corporate offenders: