Part 7: Sentencing and release Chapter 1: Custodial sentences Section 125: Whole life order as starting point for premeditated child murder
Section 125 amends Schedule 21 to the Code to extend the application of whole life orders. Whole life orders are the most severe penalty available in the justice system and requires that a prisoner spend the rest of his or her life in prison without the possibility of release on parole, unless there are compassionate grounds for possible release.
	Section 125 inserts a new subparagraph (ba) in paragraph 2(2) of Schedule 21 to the Code. Section 322 of the Code requires the court to have regard to the principles in Schedule 21 when assessing the seriousness of murder cases and in deciding on the appropriate minimum term for a mandatory life sentence. Paragraph 2(2) of Schedule 21 deals with exceptionally serious cases in which the court should normally consider a whole life order as its starting point and gives examples of circumstances where a whole life order should be the starting point. New paragraph 2(2)(ba) adds the murder of a child if it involves a substantial degree of premeditation or planning to such circumstances. This additional criterion applies to offences committed on or after the date on which these provisions in the Act come into force.