Part 1: Counter-terrorism Chapter 2: Punishment and management of terrorist offenders Section 8: Sentences for offences with a terrorist connection
Section 8 amends section 30 of the 2008 Act to require courts in Northern Ireland to consider whether specified offences have a terrorist connection and to extend the list of offences where such a connection must be considered in England and Wales, and Scotland.
	Section 30 of the 2008 Act requires that a court in England and Wales considering a person’s sentence for an offence listed in Schedule 2 to that Act must, if it appears that there was or may have been a terrorist connection, make a determination (on the criminal standard of proof) as to whether there was such a connection. The court will make this determination on the basis of the usual information before it for the purposes of sentencing, that is the trial evidence or evidence heard at a Newton hearing (if necessary) following a guilty plea, and taking account of any representations made by the prosecution or defence. A Newton hearing is where the judge hears evidence from both the prosecution and defence and comes to his or her own conclusion on the facts (because the facts are disputed by the other parties), applying the criminal standard of proof. If the court determines that there was a terrorist connection, it must treat that as an aggravating factor when sentencing the offender. The presence of an aggravating factor would point to the court imposing a higher sentence (within the statutory maximum) than would otherwise be the case.
	Subsection (2) amends section 30 of the 2008 Act so that the duty imposed on criminal courts in England and Wales is extended to criminal courts in Northern Ireland. (Section 31 of the 2008 Act makes equivalent provision for Scotland.)
	Additionally, Part 4 of the 2008 Act requires an individual convicted of a terrorism offence or of an offence determined to have a terrorist connection (that is, a terrorism-related offence) and receiving a qualifying sentence to notify specified information to the police (see paragraphs 84 and 85 below for further details). The notification requirements do not currently apply in Northern Ireland where a person is convicted of a terrorism-related offence. As a result of the amendment made by subsection (2) it automatically follows that persons sentenced to a qualifying sentence for a terrorism-related offence in Northern Ireland will henceforth also be subject to the notification requirement. Subsection (3) amends section 42 of the 2008 Act to make this explicit.
	Subsections (5) and (6)(b) to (d) amend Schedule 2 to the 2008 Act to add offences under the law in Northern Ireland, namely the offences of false imprisonment, blackmail, intimidation and putting people in fear of violence and certain firearms offences, to the list of specified offences for the purposes of section 30 of that Act. Such offences are commonly charged in Northern Ireland in terrorism-related cases. Between February 2001 and March 2017, 411 individuals detained in Northern Ireland under section 41 of the 2000 Act were charged with firearms offences, 32 such individuals were charged with false imprisonment, 31 such individuals were charged with intimidation and 57 such individuals were charged with blackmail.1
	Subsection (6)(a) amends Schedule 2 to the 2008 Act to add the offence of wounding with intent (section 18 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861) to the list of specified offences for the purposes of section 30 of that Act. Between 2012 and 2018, eight individuals have been charged in England and Wales with this offence where the offence was considered to be terrorist related.2 Schedule 2 to the 2008 Act already lists a number of other offences provided for in the Offences against the Person Act 1861; that Act does not apply to Scotland and accordingly subsection (5) also adds broadly equivalent Scottish common law offences to Schedule 2 to the 2008 Act.