17
May 2016
Sentencing proposals likely to increase fines to an even higher level
The Sentencing Council are proposing stricter rules on another set of sentencing guidelines which, although they don’t mention health and safety offences, will have the effect of increasing fines yet further for those involved in health and safety cases.
These new guidelines propose to restrict the discount that is received if a Defendant pleads guilty.
Currently, if a Defendant pleads guilty at the “earliest reasonable opportunity”, then a discount of one-third is given on the criminal sentence.
A Defendant will have to plead guilty the first time the Court asks for a guilty or not guilty plea under the new proposals.
The difficulty is that, in the specialist area of health and safety cases, the first time a Defendant is asked to plead the Defendant may not have had time to have received proper legal advice on their defence or review the prosecution materials. This may mean that health and safety Defendants may well miss out on the one-third discount available to them. This would lead to more litigation if Defendants lose the incentive to plead guilty early.
The guidelines are only proposals at the moment, and it remains to be seen whether this loophole will be closed or whether the Sentencing Council presses ahead with this proposed set of guidelines.
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