Draft Sentencing Act 2020 (Amendment of Schedule 21) Regulations 2025
(2 days, 3 hours ago)
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The Chair
Before I call the Minister, anybody who feels the need to remove clothing—within reason—please do so.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Sir Nicholas Dakin)
I beg to move,
That the Committee has considered the draft Sentencing Act 2020 (Amendment of Schedule 21) Regulations 2025.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Murrison. As the Committee will be aware, in December last year my right hon. Friend the Lord Chancellor made a written statement to the House concerning the independent domestic homicide sentencing review, which announced the Government’s plans to implement two of the review’s outstanding recommendations. In opposition, we welcomed Clare Wade KC’s approach of updating the sentencing framework for murder to reflect the seriousness of domestic homicides, while balancing the need to ensure that any changes do not unduly punish abused women who kill their abuser. We did, however, call for more of the review’s recommendations to be implemented, which is precisely what today’s draft instrument is intended to achieve. Its measures are central to the Government’s mission to keep our streets safe and halve violence against women and girls.
In case it is helpful to the Committee, I will set out some of the background to this issue. Our current sentencing framework for murder, as specified in schedule 21 to the Sentencing Act 2020, was first introduced more than 20 years ago. Since then, multiple piecemeal amendments have been made to it by Governments of all colours. In recent years, particular concerns have been raised regarding gendered disparities for murders committed in a domestic context. Clare Wade KC, an experienced barrister specialising in murder, manslaughter and serious sexual offences, was commissioned by the previous Government to review sentencing in domestic homicide cases. She was tasked with establishing whether the law in this area and related sentencing guidelines were fit for purpose.
I pay tribute to Clare Wade for her thorough and considered work on this review, and to those whose campaigning led to the commissioning of it. They include Carole Gould and Julie Devey, founders of the Killed Women network and mothers of two young women, Ellie Gould and Poppy Devey Waterhouse, both of whom were tragically murdered by their former partners. Having met members of the Killed Women campaign to hear their harrowing experiences at first hand, I recognise just how important this legislation is. I know that colleagues will join me in commending their courage and commitment to campaigning for change.
Clare Wade KC’s review was published in March 2023, and the previous Government responded in July of the same year. Some of the recommendations were accepted and implemented by Ministers in that Administration, but a number remain outstanding. Today’s instrument implements two of them. First, it introduces a statutory aggravating factor for murders connected with the end of a relationship. In over a third of the cases analysed by the review, the murder occurred at the end, or perceived end, of the relationship, and in the majority of cases, this appeared to be the catalyst for the killing. The perpetrator was male in all these cases. As the Committee will be aware, a murder involving resentment or jealousy by the perpetrator at the end of a relationship is a significant feature of cases involving controlling or coercive behaviour, and is often the final controlling act of an abusive partner.
Secondly, the instrument introduces a statutory aggravating factor for murders involving strangulation. In recent years, strangulation has been recognised as a method of exerting power and control, particularly in the context of domestic abuse where female victims are assaulted by physically stronger males. Nearly a third of the murder cases analysed by Clare Wade KC involved strangulation, all carried out by a male perpetrator with a female victim. The intention of the instrument is to recognise those factors expressly in statute, to ensure that domestic murders and the particular harms that arise in these cases are given specialist consideration in the framework.
Alongside this important legislation, my right hon. Friend the Lord Chancellor has also invited the Law Commission to conduct a review of homicide law and sentencing. The sentencing framework for murder was first introduced over 20 years ago and has never been subject to wholesale review. This contrasts with the Sentencing Council’s sentencing guidelines, which are regularly reviewed and updated, with any changes subject to thorough consultation. While Clare Wade KC’s review and today’s legislation go some way towards ensuring that the sentencing framework for murder reflects a modern understanding of domestic abuse, more fundamental reform is also required. The intention of the Law Commission review is a complete reconsideration of the sentencing framework for murder, with a view to making recommendations for a new schedule 21. The review will also consider the law relating to homicide offences, including full and partial defences to them.
We anticipate that the Law Commission review will take some time to complete. We will then need to consider the recommendations and bring forward any necessary legislation. This is the right course of action for such a complex area of law, but it is not a swift one, which is why we are taking more immediate action in the short term by introducing the measures in the instrument. This is part of our crucial work to deliver on our missions to keep our streets safe and halve violence against women and girls. I commend the draft regulations to the Committee.
Dr Kieran Mullan (Bexhill and Battle) (Con)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Murrison, and to respond on behalf of His Majesty’s Opposition. This delegated legislation follows on from legislation laid by the previous Government as part of their response to the independent domestic homicide sentencing review undertaken by Clare Wade KC.
As the Minister outlined, the regulations amend schedule 21 to add aggravating factors for when the murder is connected with the end of an intimate personal relationship, and when the murder involves strangulation, suffocation or asphyxiation. The previous Government, of course, gave consideration to introducing these measures, as they were determined to identify approaches to reduce the rate and nature of violence perpetrated against women and girls.
Our earlier legislative changes introduced statutory aggravating factors for repeated controlling or coercive behaviour by the offender, and sustained and excessive violence towards the victim, but, as the Minister will know, the Government chose not to take forward these specific measures at that time. I am sure that he has been privy to the full range of official advice on these amendments, even if he has ultimately decided to move forward with them now. The Sentencing Council articulated the counter-argument to their introduction in its consultation response, focusing on the challenges of an approach that distinguishes through method rather than the impact of violence of one type or another. The Sentencing Council also expressed concerns that trials might face complex evidential questions about what constitutes an intimate personal relationship. It was not unreasonable to pause and give consideration to those concerns, but we recognise why the Government have now chosen to proceed with these measures.
As the Minister explained, in over a third of the murder cases studied in the Wade review,
“the murder occurred at the end, or perceived end, of the relationship.”
The use of strangulation was also frequently involved, a method of killing that is disproportionately used by men against women, and which has long been recognised as a marker of escalating abuse and lethal violence.
The Law Commission is currently reviewing the law on homicide and sentencing more generally. So if there is a residual concern about how all the different aggravating and mitigating factors interact, that review will present an opportunity for the Government to consider the matter in the round in a way that might assuage concerns about these individual measures.
In conclusion, for now, we respect the Government’s settled view that they believe these measures may on balance bring benefit, and we will not oppose them this evening. But I say to the Minister that the Government do need to make up their mind. The benefit of introducing measures such as these is somewhat muted, because at the same time, the Government are introducing a whole raft of other measures that make the efforts to tackle violence against women and girls and particularly the fight for justice for them harder.
The Government have committed to letting out offenders after serving a third of their sentences simply for not breaking the rules while in prison. They voted against our measures to allow victims to appeal unduly lenient sentences and to protect victims from having their impact statements unduly interfered with. They have introduced automatic release in relation to parole breaches, rather than keeping people in prison until it is safe to let them out. And last week, they welcomed a report that recommended even greater discount for guilty pleas, which, when combined with the Gauke recommendations, could see a domestic abuser serve just one fifth of their sentence.
Measures like these this evening are not going to change the situation, and victims will notice. They will know when they are being given something with one hand only to have twice as much taken away with the other, and we will hold the Government to account for that every step of the way.
Sir Nicholas Dakin
I am grateful that the spokesman for His Majesty’s Opposition recognises that the draft regulations build on the work of the previous Government in a right and proper way, taking those decisions forward. It is disappointing that he does not recognise some responsibility for the situation that we inherited in the prison estate with overcrowding, and in the courts with people having to wait so long to have their trial. That is why we are having to address these issues in the round. But that is not pertinent to this statutory instrument, which speaks for itself, and I am grateful for his and his party’s support on this issue.
Question put and agreed to.