The Sentencing Council is making a series of amendments to its guidelines for the magistrates’ courts and Crown Court
The changes will affect the offences of using an untaxed vehicle with a SORN on a public road, keeping a vehicle without valid insurance, using a phone while driving a goods vehicle over 3.5 tonnes and failed payment of vehicle excise duty. Crown Court guideline changes include clarifying the wording of the high harm factor in strangulation or suffocation, clarifying that disqualification from driving is not subject to a guilty plea reduction and adding a reference to gains made by the offender as part of the harm assessment.
This follows the council’s fifth annual consultation on miscellaneous amendments to sentencing guidelines, which closed in January. The amendments come into force on 13 July.
