Criminal Justice Act 1988

The title of this Act is:

An Act to make fresh provision for extradition; to amend the rules of evidence in criminal proceedings; to provide for the reference by the Attorney General of certain questions relating to sentencing to the Court of Appeal; to amend the law with regard to the jurisdiction and powers of criminal courts, the collection, enforcement and remission of fines imposed by coroners, juries, supervision orders, the detention of children and young persons, probation and the probation service, criminal appeals, anonymity in cases of rape and similar cases, orders under sections 4 and 11 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981 relating to trials on indictment, orders restricting the access of the public to the whole or any part of a trial on indictment or to any proceedings ancillary to such a trial and orders restricting the publication of any report of the whole or any part of a trial on indictment or any such ancillary proceedings, the alteration of names of petty sessions areas, officers of inner London magistrates' courts and the costs and expenses of prosecution witnesses and certain other persons; to make fresh provision for the payment of compensation by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board; to make provision for the payment of compensation for a miscarriage of justice which has resulted in a wrongful conviction; to create an offence of torture and an offence of having an article with a blade or point in a public place; to create further offences relating to weapons; to create a summary offence of possession of an indecent photograph of a child; to amend the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 in relation to searches, computer data about fingerprints and bail for persons in customs detention; to make provision in relation to the taking of body samples by the police in Northern Ireland; to amend the Bail Act 1976; to give a justice of the peace power to authorise entry and search of premises for offensive weapons; to provide for the enforcement of the Video Recordings Act 1984 by officers of a weights and measures authority and in Northern Ireland by officers of the Department of Economic Development; to extend to the purchase of easements and other rights over land the power to purchase land conferred on the Secretary of State by section 36 of the Prison Act 1952; and for connected purposes.

In England and Wales, the Act granted the Attorney General the power to refer sentences for certain offences to the Court of Appeal if the Attorney General feels that the sentence was unduly lenient, which is sometimes called the 'unduly lenient sentence scheme'. This provision entered into force in 1989,[2] with its first application being in July of that year.[3]

The controversially-low sentences given to the rapists of Jill Saward was one impetus for the scheme,[3] which was justified as ensuring that public trust in justice was maintained by correcting gross errors; in a 2022 answer to a question in parliament, the Government said that the scheme ensures that punishment is aligned with the severity of the crime and assures victims that "justice will be served".[2] The Law Commission is reviewing the law around criminal appeals and the unduly lenient sentences scheme is within this review's terms of reference,[2] beginning in July 2022 and with a green paper expected in 2023.[4] The scheme has been criticised on the grounds of having become "too politicised", and that "too many cases [are being] referred, in some instances on most unusual grounds."[2]

The included offences are those which are indictable and some either-way offences, which are specified by a secretary of state; the list of applicable either-way offences has been expanded since 1994.[5]

Any member of the public may ask the Attorney General to refer a sentence to the Court of Appeal; the Attorney General has four weeks, beginning on the day following the sentence being passed, to consider the sentence's leniency and then to make the referral.[6] Should a referral be made, the Court of Appeal will then consider whether the sentence is not merely lenient but unduly lenient and beyond the reasonable range available to a judge considering all the relevant information available at the time; if that determination is made, then the Court of Appeal will increase the sentence.[7]

The number of requests made to the Attorney General has increased since 2001, from less than 300 in that year to 1,006 in 2018, which, as of 2021's statistics, is the highest number of requests made. However, the number of cases referred to the Court of Appeal has remained within a roughly similar range during that period.[8] Of those cases, the fraction of sentences were found to be unduly lenient has also remained in a rough band between 60% and 90%.[9]

This section creates an offence of manufacturing, selling, lending, giving, importing, hiring or exposing for hire offensive weapons, but does not itself define which weapons it applies to. Subsection 141(2) allows a statutory instrument to define them; the only order currently is the Schedule 1 of the Criminal Justice Act 1998 (Offensive Weapons) Order 1988.

Specifically exempted from this section are crossbows and items subject to the Firearms Act 1968[10]

Various amendments have been made to the Schedule to add new weapons, most recently (August 2016) an amendment to this order came into force to include zombie knives in the list of prohibited weapons.[11]

The power conferred by section 171(1) has been exercised by the following orders:

• The Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Commencement No. 1) Order 1988 (SI 1988/1408) (C 53)
• The Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Commencement No. 2) Order 1988 (SI 1988/1676) (C 60)
• The Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Commencement No. 3) Order 1988 (SI 1988/1817) (C 65)
• The Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Commencement No. 4) Order 1988 (SI 1988/2073) (C 78)
• The Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Commencement No. 5) Order 1989 (SI 1989/1) (C 1)
• The Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Commencement No. 6) Order 1989 (SI 1989/50) (C 2)
• The Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Commencement No. 7) Order 1989 (SI 1989/264) (C 8)
• The Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Commencement No. 8) Order 1989 (SI 1989/1085) (C 29)
• The Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Commencement No. 9) Order 1989 (SI 1989/1595) (C 55)
• The Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Commencement No. 10) Order 1990 (SI 1990/220) (C 10)
• The Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Commencement No. 11) Order 1990 (SI 1990/1145) (C 32)
• The Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Commencement No. 12) Order 1990 (SI 1990/2084) (C 51)
• The Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Commencement No. 13) Order 1999 (SI 1999/3425) (C 93)
• The Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Commencement No. 14) Order 2004 (SI 2004/2167) (C 90)

• Criminal Justice Act

• Halsbury's Statutes,

• Beard, Jacqueline (8 November 2022). Review of Unduly Lenient Sentences (PDF) (Report). House of Commons Library.

• The Criminal Justice Act 1988, as amended from the National Archives.
• The Criminal Justice Act 1988, as originally enacted from the National Archives.