Asked by: Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of sentences for domestic homicides were calculated from the starting point of (a) 15 years, (b) 25 years, (c) 30 years and (d) a whole life tariff in each of the last three years.
Answered by Gareth Bacon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
All murder convictions must result in a life sentence. When a life sentence is imposed, the Judge will calculate the minimum term by selecting the appropriate starting point as set out in legislation – namely Schedule 21 of the Sentencing Act 2020. When sentencing adult offenders, the starting points are 15, 25, 30 years or a whole life order.
The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of prosecutions, convictions, and sentences across various offences in the Outcomes by Offence data tool. Please filter by the offence ‘murder’ in the sentence outcomes tab for details on the number of offenders sentenced for murder.
Statistical data on starting points for murder sentences, including domestic homicides, is not collected. The information may be held on individual court records, however interrogating these would incur disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of sentences for murder were calculated from the starting point of (a) 15 years, (b) 25 years, (c) 30 years and (d) a whole life tariff in each of the last three years.
Answered by Gareth Bacon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
All murder convictions must result in a life sentence. When a life sentence is imposed, the Judge will calculate the minimum term by selecting the appropriate starting point as set out in legislation – namely Schedule 21 of the Sentencing Act 2020. When sentencing adult offenders, the starting points are 15, 25, 30 years or a whole life order.
The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of prosecutions, convictions, and sentences across various offences in the Outcomes by Offence data tool. Please filter by the offence ‘murder’ in the sentence outcomes tab for details on the number of offenders sentenced for murder.
Statistical data on starting points for murder sentences, including domestic homicides, is not collected. The information may be held on individual court records, however interrogating these would incur disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of domestic homicide cases used the partial defences of diminished responsibility and loss of control in each of the last 10 years for which data is available.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on prosecutions and convictions involving manslaughter and manslaughter due to diminished responsibility in the “Outcomes by Offence” tool as part of the Criminal Justice System Statistics publication.
In the “Outcomes by Offences” pivot tool, select the `Prosecutions and Convictions’ page, and then select “00405” (manslaughter due to diminished responsibility) and “00401” (manslaughter) from the HO offence code filter. A defendant, committed by the magistrates’ court to the Crown Court, may not complete both court processes in the same year. Each stage would therefore be counted by the particular court in the year where those proceedings took place or completed, meaning that in any given year, convictions may exceed prosecutions and sentences may not equate to the number of convictions. In addition, defendants who appear before both courts may also be convicted of a different offence at the Crown Court to that counted during proceedings in the magistrates’ court, where the offence may have changed after committal to the Crown Court.
The Ministry of Justice does not collate information separately on whether a prosecution also concerns one of domestic homicide. Data is unavailable on the partial defence of loss of control.