Schedules Schedule 2: Sentencing Consolidation: Pre-Consolidation Amendments Minimum sentences and reductions in sentence for assisting the prosecution
Section 73 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 allows the Crown Court, when sentencing offenders who plead guilty in proceedings before that court and who have entered into a written agreement to provide assistance in any investigation or prosecution, to reduce the sentence imposed on such offenders to reflect the extent and nature of the assistance given or offered. In particular, section 73(5) provides that nothing that requires a minimum sentence to be passed in respect of any offence limits the power of the court to pass a reduced sentence.
	Paragraphs 59 and 131(2) make amendments clarifying the effect of this provision. Paragraph 59 amends section 150 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 to clarify that a community order may still be imposed where a minimum sentence applies (except for murder offences, where the penalty is fixed by law as a life sentence) to an offender where a sentence is being reduced due to the extent and nature of the assistance given or offered. Paragraph 131(2) simply lists the minimum sentences to which section 73(5) refers. Both changes are made to improve legal transparency.