Where can I find the sentencing guidelines for an offence?

The Sentencing Council publishes every guideline used by courts in England and Wales, free and in full, for both the Crown Court and the magistrates' courts. Each offence guideline takes the judge through steps: how serious the harm and culpability were, a starting point and range, aggravating and mitigating factors, and a reduction for a guilty plea.

Courts must follow relevant guidelines unless it would be contrary to the interests of justice. The Council is an independent public body; its members are mostly judges and magistrates.

A guideline range is not the same as the sentence actually served, and the maximum penalty is set by the Act creating the offence. Scotland has its own Scottish Sentencing Council, and Northern Ireland follows its own sentencing guidance.

Official sources: Sentencing Council guidelines (Crown Court) · Magistrates' court guidelines · Scottish Sentencing Council

The latest figure

The newest value is at Office for National Statistics (ONS), using Home Office police recorded crime. More on it: Knife crime offences (England and Wales).

When is the next figure out?

Quarterly in the ONS Crime in England and Wales bulletin; the year ending March 2026 figures were published on 23 July 2026 and the next bulletin is due on 22 October 2026. Force-level figures are in the police force area data tables

Every official release due in the next two weeks is on the release calendar.

Terms used in this answer

• Custodial sentence
  A sentence that sends an offender to prison or a young offender institution. Most adults serve part of the sentence in custody and the rest on licence in the community.
• Community order
  A sentence served in the community, with one or more requirements such as unpaid work, a curfew or treatment, instead of prison.
• Rate per 100,000
  The number of events divided by the population and multiplied by 100,000, so areas of different sizes can be compared on a like-for-like basis.
• Administrative data
  Information collected by organisations while running a service, such as tax records, benefit claims or hospital activity, and then used to produce statistics.
• England and Wales
  A single legal jurisdiction, so crime, courts, prisons and death registration statistics are often published for England and Wales together.
• Year-on-year change
  The change between a figure for one period and the same period twelve months earlier, such as March this year compared with March last year.

Where the figures come from

• Find Case Law, legislation.gov.uk, the Sentencing Council and UK court records
  How to search UK court judgments on Find Case Law, check if a law is in force on legislation.gov.uk, and read sentencing, tribunal and CPS data.

Related questions

• What is the average prison sentence in the UK?
• How do I check if a UK law is in force?
• Can I find out if someone has been convicted of a crime?

This answer says where the official figures are published and how they are defined. It gives no verdict on any claim. To report an error, send a correction request. More questions about courts, judgments and the law: all Courts, judgments and the law questions.