Using Violence to Secure Entry

Overview

What is the Sentencing Council?

The Sentencing Council is the independent body responsible for developing sentencing guidelines which courts in England and Wales must follow when passing a sentence. The Council consults on proposed guidelines before they come into force and makes changes to the guidelines as a result of consultations.

Why a guideline for using violence to secure entry offences?

There is currently no guideline for this offence which often occurs within the context of domestic abuse and the Council felt that it would be useful to the courts to develop a guideline. It is a summary only offence, contrary to s.6 of the Criminal Law Act 1977, with a statutory maximum of 6 months’ custody and/or a level 5 fine.  

This consultation paper has been produced in order to seek views from as many people as possible interested in the sentencing of these offences. This is a 12 week public consultation. Once the results of the consultation have been considered, the Council will seek the consent of the Lord Chancellor and the Lady Chief Justice to issue them as definitive guidelines. Once consent is secured, the updated guidelines will be published alongside a consultation response document setting out the consultation responses and the Council’s response to these.

The Council has also produced a resource assessment for the guidelines, along with a statistical summary and data tables showing current sentencing practice for this offence. These documents can be found on the Council’s website.

Through this consultation process, the Council is seeking views on:

• the principal factors that make any of the offences included within the draft guideline more or less serious;
• the additional factors that should influence the sentence;
• the types and lengths of sentence that should be passed;
• whether there are any issues relating to disparity of sentencing and/or broader matters relating to equality and diversity that the guideline could and should address; and
• anything else you think should be considered.

We would like to hear from anyone who uses sentencing guidelines in their work or who has an interest in sentencing. We would also like to hear from individuals and organisations representing anyone who could be affected by the proposals including:

• victims and their families;
• defendants and their families;
• those under probation supervision or youth offending teams/supervision;
• those with protected characteristics: age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

 It is important to note that the Council is consulting on sentencing these offences and not on the legislation upon which such offences are based. The relevant legislation is a matter for Parliament and is, therefore, outside the scope of this exercise

How to give your views

The paper discusses each section of the guideline in turn. You can give your views by answering the questions within each section (you do not need to respond to any questions or sections that are not relevant to you).

Age applicability

When issued as definitive guidelines these will only apply to offenders aged 18 and older. General principles to be considered in the sentencing of children and young people are in the Council’s Sentencing children and young people definitive guideline.