Policy background Custodial Sentences Minimum sentences for particular offences
For offenders who commit certain key offences of a serious nature, the law provides minimum custodial sentences. These generally, although not exclusively, apply to repeat offences, such as a third conviction for domestic burglary. These minimum sentences are not technically mandatory; rather they are a mandatory consideration that the court must make before passing a sentence. Courts have the discretion not to impose the minimum when it considers that there are particular circumstances pertaining to the offender and/or the offence which would make it unjust. The court will apply a reduction for an early guilty plea, although the reduction cannot take the sentence length to below 80% of the minimum.
	A large proportion of repeat offenders do not receive the minimum custodial sentence. The Act aims to reduce the occasions in which the court could depart from the minimum term, by changing the threshold for passing a sentence below the minimum term for offences including: a third class A drug trafficking offence (7 years minimum); a third domestic burglary (3 years minimum); a repeat offence involving a weapon or bladed article (6 months minimum); and threatening a person with a weapon or bladed article (6 months minimum). The changes will also apply to 16- and 17-year-olds who receive a 4-month detention and training order ("DTO") for a repeat offence involving a weapon or bladed article or threatening a person with weapon or bladed article.
	These changes will also align the criteria used for these offences with section 311 of the Sentencing Code ("the Code") (as introduced by the Sentencing Act 2020 (the "2020 Act")), which states, in relation to offences involving firearms, that the court must impose an appropriate custodial sentence of at least the minimum term unless the court is of the opinion that there are "exceptional" circumstances which relate to the offence or to the offender which would justify not doing so.
	Section 124 and Schedule 12 amend sections 312 to 315 and 320 of the Code in relation to the offences mentioned above so that it requires the court to impose a custodial sentence of at least the statutory minimum term unless there are exceptional circumstances that relate to any of the offences or to the offender which would make it unjust to do so. Judicial discretion to depart from the minimum is retained.
	These changes will apply only prospectively, and the court will continue to apply a discount for an early guilty plea, not below 80% of the minimum.