Search Legislation

Advanced Search

Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015

Section 27: Term of imprisonment for murder of police or prison officer

273.Section 27 amends Schedule 21 to the Criminal Justice Act 2003, which sets out the principles to which section 269 of that Act requires the court to have regard when assessing the seriousness of all cases of murder, in order to determine the appropriate minimum term to be imposed in relation to mandatory life sentences. Paragraph 4 of Schedule 21 deals with the exceptionally serious cases in which the court should normally start by considering a whole life term, and provides a number of examples of cases that should normally fall into this category. This section puts the murder of a police or prison officer in the course of his or her duty into this category; previously it was dealt with in paragraph 5 of Schedule 21 as the type of case where the normal starting point would be a minimum term of 30 years.

274.Subsection (4) applies the amendment to those cases where the offence was committed on or after the date of commencement.

Back to top

Options/Help

Print Options

Close

Explanatory Notes

Text created by the government department responsible for the subject matter of the Act to explain what the Act sets out to achieve and to make the Act accessible to readers who are not legally qualified. Explanatory Notes were introduced in 1999 and accompany all Public Acts except Appropriation, Consolidated Fund, Finance and Consolidation Acts.

Close

More Resources

Access essential accompanying documents and information for this legislation item from this tab. Dependent on the legislation item being viewed this may include:

  • the original print PDF of the as enacted version that was used for the print copy
  • lists of changes made by and/or affecting this legislation item
  • confers power and blanket amendment details
  • all formats of all associated documents
  • correction slips
  • links to related legislation and further information resources
Close

Impact Assessments

Impact Assessments generally accompany all UK Government interventions of a regulatory nature that affect the private sector, civil society organisations and public services. They apply regardless of whether the regulation originates from a domestic or international source and can accompany primary (Acts etc) and secondary legislation (SIs). An Impact Assessment allows those with an interest in the policy area to understand:

  • Why the government is proposing to intervene;
  • The main options the government is considering, and which one is preferred;
  • How and to what extent new policies may impact on them; and,
  • The estimated costs and benefits of proposed measures.