Legal background Extended Determinate Sentence
The EDS, comprising a custodial term and an extension period to be served on licence in the community, is available to the courts for specified violent, sexual or terrorism offences, contained in sections 254, 266 and 279 of the Sentencing Code. Where the offender meets particular criteria, including committing a specified offence, they have been deemed to pose a significant risk of harm, and where the court is not required to impose a life sentence, the court may impose an extended sentence.
	Part 10, Chapter 6 of the Sentencing Code defines the meaning of a specified offence which may attract an extended sentence in the case of offenders deemed to be "dangerous", and defines how the assessment of dangerousness is made.
	The current maximum length of the extended licence period is eight years for specified terrorist offences. The combined length of the custodial term and the extended licence period must be within the maximum penalty for the offence committed. All offenders, including terrorist offenders, must be released at the end of their custodial term but the Parole Board has the discretion to release from the two-thirds point if satisfied that the offender’s detention is no longer necessary for the protection of the public.
	The EDS was introduced by the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, under sections 226A of the 2003 Act for adults and section 226B of the 2003 Act for under 18s. It replaced the previous extended sentence under sections 227 and 228 of the 2003 Act. An EDS may be imposed where an adult or child offender has committed a specified violent, sexual or terrorist offence (as listed in Schedule 18 to the Sentencing Code) and the courts find the offender to be ‘dangerous’. As enacted, and prior to 13 April 2015, if the custodial term of an EDS was for a period of less than 10 years, and the offence was not listed in Schedule 15B to the 2003 Act, release was automatic at the two-thirds point – with no Parole Board consideration. This was amended by the Criminal Justice and Court Act 2015 which provided for Parole Board consideration of the release of all EDS sentenced offenders sentenced after that Act came into force, and further amended by the TORER Act 2020 provisions to bring the release of all prior determinate sentences for terrorism offences into line.