Attorney Generals Office
November 29
09:41
2024
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If a sentence given in a Crown Court appears to be very low, or unduly lenient, anyone can ask the Attorney General to examine the sentence under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme, within 28 days of sentencing.
The Attorney or Solicitor General may then ask the Court of Appeal to look at the sentence. The court may decide to keep the sentence the same, increase it, or issue guidance for future cases.
We publish unduly lenient sentence data annually. This data includes the number of sentences examined, the outcome and details of the cases.