The Act Commentary on Sections Part 2: Sentencing Section 20: Consecutive terms of imprisonment
225.Section 20 amends the 2003 Act in respect of consecutive custody plus and intermittent custody sentences and general restrictions on consecutive sentences for released prisoners.
226.Subsection (2) inserts a new subsection (7A) into section 181 of the 2003 Act which states that when calculating whether the aggregate length of consecutive terms of imprisonment is within the 65 week maximum limit for consecutive terms referred to in section 181(7)(a), account is to be taken of all the custody periods but only the longest of the licence periods.
227.Subsection (3) amends section 264A(3), (4)(b) and (5). The effect of these amendments is that where intermittent custody sentences are ordered by a court to be served consecutively the offender will be required to serve all the custody periods plus all the licence periods.
228.Subsection (4) amends section 265 to clarify the position on imposing consecutive sentences on different occasions. Subsection (4)(a) amends section 265(1), the effect of which is that if an offender has been released on licence under Part II of the 1991 Act or Chapter 6 of Part 12 of the 2003 Act then a subsequent sentence may not be ordered to be served consecutively to the sentence from which he has already been released. Subsection (4)(b) inserts new subsections (1A) and (1B) into section 265: these ensure that persons sentenced under the 1991 Act are subject to section 265(1) as amended by subsection (4)(a) and provide that for the purposes of determining whether someone has already been released on licence, any temporary release on licence under section 183(1)(b)(i) in respect of an intermittent custody sentence is to be discounted.