Legal background Statutory sentencing aggravating factor for a terrorist connection
Section 69 of the Sentencing Code requires that a court in England and Wales considering an offender’s sentence for certain offences, must, if it appears that there is or may have been a terrorist connection, make a finding (on the criminal standard of proof) as to whether there is such a connection. The court will make this determination on the basis of the usual information before it for the purposes of sentencing, that is the trial evidence or evidence heard at a Newton hearing (if necessary), and taking account of any representations made by the prosecution or the defence. A Newton hearing is where the judge hears evidence from both the prosecution and the defence and comes to his or her own conclusion on the facts (because the facts as set out by the prosecution are disputed by the defendant), applying the criminal standard of proof.
	Prior to amendment by this Act, a court was only expressly required to consider whether there was a terrorist connection, in respect of those limited offences specified in Schedule 1 to the Sentencing Code (for England and Wales) and Schedule 2 of the 2008 Act (for Northern Ireland and Scotland). If a court determined that there was a terrorist connection in relation to these specified offences, it must treat that as an aggravating factor when sentencing the offender. The presence of an aggravating factor will result in a higher sentence (within the statutory maximum) than would otherwise be the case. In addition, by virtue of section 42 of the 2008 Act the offence will fall within the scope of the notification requirements that apply to terrorist offences under Part 4 of the Act. Furthermore, these offences will also fall within the scope of the forfeiture provisions under section 23A of the Terrorism Act 2000 and engage the restriction of early release provisions in the TORER Act.