Schedules Schedule 2: Sentencing Consolidation: Pre-Consolidation Amendments Minimum sentences and offenders aged 18 to 20
By virtue of section 89 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 offenders convicted under the age of 21 cannot be sentenced to imprisonment. Where an offender aged 18, 19 or 20, is convicted and the court wishes to impose a custodial sentence they must impose either a sentence of detention in a young offender institution (under section 96 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000) or a sentence of custody for life (under sections 93 or 94 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000).
	These sentences are to be abolished by section 61 of, and Schedule 7 to, the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 so that any offender convicted aged 18 or over may be sentenced to imprisonment. These provisions have not yet been commenced. At present, there is a need, where a provision requires a sentence of imprisonment to be imposed on an offender aged 18 or over, to provide that for offenders aged 18 to 20 that is to be read as requiring a sentence of detention in a young offender institution (or if the offence has a maximum penalty of life, a sentence of custody for life).
	Section 110 of the 2000 Act (minimum of seven years for third class A drug trafficking offence) and section 51A of the Firearms Act 1968 (minimum sentence for certain offences under s.5) require the courts, in the case of an offender aged 18 or over, to impose a custodial sentence of at least 7 or 5 years (respectively). In the case of an offender aged 21 or over this will always be a sentence of imprisonment. In the case of an offender aged 18 to 20 these sections have been amended so that the court must impose a sentence of detention in a young offender institution of at least the requisite length. Reference has not also been made to the availability of sentences of custody for life under section 94 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000. This is because specific references to imprisonment for life are not required in the case of offenders aged 21 or over.
	It is not the intention of these provisions that, where a minimum sentence applies to an offender aged 18 to 20, the courts cannot impose a sentence of custody for life where they consider the seriousness of the offence, and the danger the offender poses to the public, justify it.
	To resolve this ambiguity amendments are made to section 110 of the 2000 Act by paragraph 38 and to Article 2(b) of the Firearms (Sentencing) (Transitory Provisions) Order 2007 (SI 2007/1324) by paragraph 137 so that in both provisions it is clarified that the court may impose a sentence of custody for life where the minimum sentence applies, the offender is aged 18 to 20, and the offence carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
	Another example of this issue also applies in relation to section 225 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003, which requires the court to impose a life sentence on certain persons convicted of serious offences aged 18 or over. Section 225 already clarifies that where a person is aged 18, 19 or 20, the sentence that must be imposed is one of custody for life, not imprisonment for life. In some references in that section to imprisonment for life there is not a corresponding reference to custody for life. Paragraph 139(2) therefore amends Article 3(4) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 (Sentencing) (Transitory Provisions) Order 2005 (SI 2005/643) to ensure that in all places they appear, such references in section 225 also refer to sentences of custody for life.