Found: The Committee then asked whether it would be appropriate to use the Sentencing Bill to introduce this

Found: This punitive drift is being extended further, with the new Sentencing Bill introducing an assumption

Found: enhance understanding of sentencing (for example, as delivered ahead of the implementation of the Sentencing Bill

Found: It has been reported that the upcoming Sentencing Bill will include measures to limit the movement of

Found: The Sentencing Bill was laid before Parliament on 2nd September 2025.

Found: contracts, which presumably could be for additional tags that might come as a result of the Sentencing Bill

Found: for Justice, to the Chair, Justice and Home Affairs Committee following the introduction of the Sentencing Bill

Found: Q47 Josh Babarinde: I will move on to the next question on the sentencing Bill, whose second reading

Found: Correspondence from Sir Nic Dakin MP, Minister for Sentencing, dated 2 September 2025: Sentencing Bill

Found: Q47 Josh Babarinde: I will move on to the next question on the sentencing Bill, whose second reading

Found: Chair: Can you outline the discussions you have had with the MoJ about the implications of the Sentencing Bill

Found: But clearly, in light of the recent announcements, not least reflected in the Sentencing Bill before

Found: debate during the Committee Stage of Lord Woodley’s Imprisonment for Public Protection (Re-sentencing) Bill

Found: or so, particularly on the sentencing review, because the Government yesterday published the Sentencing Bill

Found: Correspondence from the Lord Chancellor, dated 25 July 2025: Recall and the Sentencing Bill Correspondence

Found: debate during the Committee Stage of Lord Woodley’s Imprisonment for Public Protection (Re-sentencing) Bill

Found: , that is not a counsel of despair, because if you look at the evidence that accompanied the sentencing Bill

Found: A review of evidence. 12 Ministry of Justice (2023) Policy Paper, Sentencing Bill Factsheet: Short Sentences

Found: Correspondence to the Lord Chancellor, dated 8 July 2025 relating to Recall and the Sentencing Bill Correspondence

Found: you come to us in a very busy week for justice, and we are expecting the publication of the sentencing Bill

Found: As a result of what we think will be the changes in the Sentencing Bill, we are going to look at whether

Found: One way is criminalisation as in the Police, Crime and Sentencing Bill of 2022.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether bereaved families of victims of murder would be protected under the restriction zone requirement in the Sentencing Bill.

Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip

It is crucial that we have a justice system that punishes offenders and supports victims. That is why increasing restriction on serious sexual and violent offenders is part of our Plan for Change to cut crime and make streets safer.

Through the Sentencing Bill, we are introducing a new power which will allow restriction zones on offenders to be imposed on offenders on licence, where appropriate. These will restrict certain offenders to specific areas – so their victims know they are safe wherever else they want to go. Licence conditions for offenders convicted of murder are determined by the independent Parole Board.

We are working to finalise the operation of, and eligibility for, these zones, subject to the passage of the Sentencing Bill.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the restriction zone requirement in the Sentencing Bill would apply to offenders of murder.

Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip

It is crucial that we have a justice system that punishes offenders and supports victims. That is why increasing restriction on serious sexual and violent offenders is part of our Plan for Change to cut crime and make streets safer.

Through the Sentencing Bill, we are introducing a new power which will allow restriction zones on offenders to be imposed on offenders on licence, where appropriate. These will restrict certain offenders to specific areas – so their victims know they are safe wherever else they want to go. Licence conditions for offenders convicted of murder are determined by the independent Parole Board.

We are working to finalise the operation of, and eligibility for, these zones, subject to the passage of the Sentencing Bill.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of the provisions in Part Two of the Sentencing Bill on victims of domestic abuse.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The Sentencing Bill includes a range of measures that will strengthen protections for victims of domestic abuse and ensure the justice system responds robustly to offending. These measures will help to ensure that prisons never run out of space again and dangerous offenders can be kept off the streets.

We are introducing a new judicial finding of domestic abuse at sentencing, which will help ensure domestic abuse offenders are better identified and monitored throughout the system. This will support stronger protections for victims, whether the perpetrator is in custody or in the community.

The Bill also retains a different release point for the most serious violent and sexual offenders and gives judges full discretion to impose immediate custody in cases involving significant risk of harm to an individual – including to protect victims of domestic abuse. In addition, we are imposing tough restriction zones for serious sexual and violent offenders, which limit the movement of perpetrators rather than victims.

These reforms are part of our wider commitment to a justice system that punishes offenders, protects the public, and supports victims – including those affected by domestic abuse.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase mandatory random drug testing in prisons in England and Wales, and to expand the range of drugs tested for.

Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Government is committed to tackling drug use in prisons, which threatens prison safety and security, undermines our work to rehabilitate prisoners and drives reoffending. We therefore need to have a multi-pronged approach that tackles the supply of drugs, drives down demand and supports recovery – drug testing plays an important role in delivering this.

Random mandatory drug testing (rMDT) forms one part of our wider approach to tackling drug use in prisons. In custody, we also conduct more targeted testing, such as suspicion-based testing, when staff have reason to believe an individual has used drugs illicitly, as well as voluntary testing, which forms part of our approach on our Incentivised Substance Free Living Units, where prisoners sign a compact to remain drug free, receive access to improved conditions compared to a standard wing and are regularly tested. In probation settings, we are expanding our drug testing powers through the Sentencing Bill, meaning that any offender on licence can be tested.

We test for a wide range of substances and keep this under regular review to ensure we identify emerging trends to keep both staff and prisoners safe. Our new drug testing contract supports this by giving us greater flexibility to identify areas for improvement in our drug testing capabilities, ensuring we can keep pace with changing patterns of drug use and target support where it is most needed.

In recent years, levels of rMDT have fallen short across the estate because of staffing constraints, and as a result, volumes have not been sufficient nor consistently high enough to produce publishable data – though results are still used as part of adjudication proceedings. There has been some encouraging progress made in recent months to increase levels, and we will continue to keep performance under close review.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has a target date for acquiring adequate numbers of electronic tags to accommodate the provisions of the Sentencing Bill.

Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip

The Ministry of Justice and His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service are continuing to assess the likely impact of the Sentencing Bill on demand for Electronic Monitoring and will order the required numbers of tags in line with those assessments and contractual requirements.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many electronic tags his Department has acquired in the context of the Sentencing Bill.

Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip

The Ministry of Justice and His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service are continuing to assess the likely impact of the Sentencing Bill on demand for Electronic Monitoring and will order the required numbers of tags in line with those assessments and contractual requirements.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to her Department's press release entitled Justice Secretary introduces democratic lock over Sentencing Council, published on 2 September 2025, what plans she has for enabling Parliament to (a) scrutinise and (b) influence future Sentencing Council guidelines.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The Lord Chancellor has brought forward measures in the Sentencing Bill to ensure that there is stronger democratic and judicial oversight of sentencing guidelines the Sentencing Council produces.

The Council will be placed under a statutory obligation to obtain approval from both the Lord Chancellor and Lady Chief Justice for all guidelines. This means that no guidelines can be issued without the Lord Chancellor and Lady Chief Justice each explicitly approving it. The Council will also be required to obtain Lord Chancellor approval of its annual business plan.

The Sentencing Council has an existing statutory obligation to consult with the Justice Select Committee on draft sentencing guidelines, which is unaffected by the measures we are taking forward in the Sentencing Bill.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to her Department's press release entitled Criminals to face football, travel, club and pub bans, published on 23 August 2025, what impact her Department estimates these measures will have on (a) rates of first offence and (b) rates of reoffence.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

Through the Sentencing Bill we will introduce new powers available to the courts when imposing a community or suspended sentence. This will provide courts with greater flexibility than ever before to tailor punishments to offenders and ensure sentences served in the community are not a “soft option” but represent a genuine punishment by restricting offenders’ freedoms.

The four new powers which this Bill includes are:

• Banning offenders from attending public events (including sports events);

• Banning offenders from attending drinking establishments (including pubs, clubs and bars);

• Prohibiting offenders from driving, and

• Requiring an offender to stay within a geographic location (restriction zones).

We believe that these new powers, for example banning criminals from football matches and pubs, will help to deter offending and hammer home that under this Government, crime no longer pays.

The Sentencing Bill seeks to increase the robustness of community sentencing. Evidence suggests that community orders and suspended sentences are more effective than short custodial sentences at reducing reoffending in certain circumstances.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of community sentencing in reducing reoffending.

Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)

There is evidence that community orders and suspended sentence orders are more effective at reducing reoffending than sentences of immediate custody in certain circumstances.

Robust analysis (using a matched comparison group to account for cohort differences such as drug use and unemployment), found that custodial sentences of less than 12 months were associated with higher reoffending rates (4 percentage points difference) compared to court orders (community or suspended sentence): https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5d1c732ee5274a08cdbe45c4/impact-short-custodial-sentences.pdf.

The Department’s latest published reoffending data (July to September 2023) shows that the one year proven reoffending rate for those on a court order was 34% and 62% for those released from a determinant sentence of less than 12 months: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/proven-reoffending-statistics-july-and-september-2023.

Ministry of Justice research findings indicate that individuals sentenced with a Community Sentence Treatment Requirement reoffend less often compared with those given a short custodial sentence. For example, Mental Health Treatment Requirements recipients had a lower reoffending rate than those on a short custodial sentence recipients by 9 percentage points.

We welcome the Independent Sentencing Review’s emphasis on increasing the use of community sentences for lower-level offenders, ensuring that prisons are focused on locking up the most dangerous offenders.

In the Sentencing Bill, we have introduced new powers to allow the courts to have greater flexibility than ever before to tailor punishments to offenders and ensure sentences served in the community are not a “soft option” but represent a genuine punishment by restricting offenders’ freedoms.

These new powers will include banning offenders from driving, from attending pubs and bars, as well as public events such as sports and concerts. We are also introducing tough new restriction zones that will limit offenders to a specific geographical area.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether she is taking steps to reduce the use of short custodial sentences for non-violent offences.

Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)

In line with the Independent Sentencing Review’s recommendation on reducing the use of short custodial sentences, the Sentencing Bill 2025 introduces a presumption to suspend short custodial sentences of 12 months or less, including for non-violent offences. We are not abolishing short sentences - judges will always have the power to send offenders to prison where they have breached a court order, where there is a significant risk of physical or psychological harm to a particular individual, or in exceptional circumstances.

Evidence shows community orders and suspended sentences can be more effective at reducing reoffending than short custodial sentences. Around 60% of adults jailed for under a year reoffend within 12 months. Ministry of Justice matched cohort research shows offenders released from short prison sentences of less than 12 months reoffend at a higher rate (up to 4pp) than similar offenders given a community or suspended sentence.

Limiting the use of short sentences will not only help offenders to leave the merry-go-round of re-offending but reduce crime, leading to fewer victims and safer communities.

Found: Sentencing Bill

Found: Sentencing Bill

Found: Bill 299–EN 59/1 SENTENCING BILL EXPLANATORY NOTES What these notes do These Explanatory Notes

Found: Sentencing Bill EXPLANATORY NOTES Explanatory notes to the Bill, prepared by the Ministry of Justice

Found: 1 Title: Sentencing Bill Impact Assessment IA No: MoJ030/2025 RPC Reference No: N/A Lead department

Found: THE SENTENCING BILL 2025 EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS MEMORANDUM SUMMARY OF THE BILL 1.

Found: Bill 299–EN 59/1 SENTENCING BILL EXPLANATORY NOTES What these notes do These Explanatory Notes

Found: Sentencing Bill [As Introduced] This is an alternative rendering of the standard published version of

Found: 1 SENTENCING BILL 2025 DELEGATED POWERS MEMORANDUM INTRODUCTION 1.

Found: Imprisonment for Public Protection (Re-sentencing) Bill [HL] MARSHALLED LIST OF AMENDMENTS TO BE

Found: Imprisonment for Public Protection (Re-sentencing) Bill [HL] RUNNING LIST OF ALL AMENDMENTS IN COMMITTEE

Restorative Justice APPG
Wednesday 11th June 2025

Found: Can I just very quickly before you go on to other people say that we’ve got this police and sentencing bill

Cats APPG
Wednesday 11th June 2025

Found: • Ben Parker from Battersea added that the Animals Welfare (Sentencing) Bill which aims to introduce

Cats APPG
Wednesday 11th June 2025

Found: - Sentencing o Chris Loder MP is bringing back the Animal Welfare Sentencing Bill to Parliament

Cats APPG
Wednesday 11th June 2025

Found:  Policy update 2 o Five-year sentences for animal Cruelty – the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Bill

Found: And I will carry on that transformative work, Through the Sentencing Bill… Delivering punishment that

Found: This comes as part of the second reading of the Sentencing Bill in the House of Commons.

Found: This announcement follows the introduction of the Sentencing Bill which set out plans to reform sentencing

Found: Change £100m extra investment and new expectation all prisoners will be tagged when leaving jail Sentencing Bill

Found: As part of the Sentencing Bill, introduced in the House of Commons today, both the Justice Secretary

Found: Sentencing Bill 2025

Found: Sentencing Bill 2025

Found: Sentencing Bill 2025

Found: sentences of less than six months (which was included, and extended to 12 months, in the 2024 Sentencing Bill

Found: As part of the Sentencing Bill, introduced in the House of Commons today, both the Justice Secretary

Found: , as the Board adapts to incorporate the changes to the sentencing framework expected in the Sentencing Bill