Criminal Justice Act 1988

The title of this act is: == Unduly lenient sentences ==

In England and Wales, the act allows anybody to ask the Attorney General's Office for a sentence they consider unduly lenient to be reviewed; the Office can review sentences given by the Crown Court in England and Wales if requested to. The Attorney General can then, within 28 days of the sentence, decide to refer sentences for certain offences to the Court of Appeal if they consider that the sentence might be unduly lenient. The Court of Appeal will only find a sentence to be lenient, and increase it, if it falls outside the range of sentences which the trial judge could reasonably consider appropriate considering all the relevant information available at the time. This is sometimes called the 'unduly lenient sentence scheme'. This provision entered into force in 1989, and was first applied in July of that year. The controversially low sentences given to the rapists of Jill Saward were one impetus for the scheme, 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". The included offences are those which are indictable and some either-way offences, which are specified by the secretary of state; the list of applicable either-way offences has been expanded since 1994. The number of requests made to the Attorney General increased from fewer than 300 in 2001 to 1,006 in 2018, which as of 2021 was the highest number of requests made. However, the number of cases referred by the Attorney General to the Court of Appeal remained within a roughly similar range during that period. The fraction of sentences referred that were found to be unduly lenient also remained roughly between 60% and 90%. == Section 134 – Torture ==

This section establishes the offence of torture in UK law. The offence is defined as the infliction of severe pain or suffering by "[a] public official or person acting in an official capacity" during the exercise of that person's official duties. Persons acting in an official capacity include members of non-state groups which "exercise functions normally exercised by governments over their civilian population". Torture is an offence of universal jurisdiction, meaning that it can be prosecuted regardless of whether the offence took place in the UK or was committed by a UK national as long as the offender is present in the country. The section creates a defence of "lawful authority, justification or excuse" in cases where the defendant's conduct is legal in the country in which they were serving as an official. This defence has been criticised by human rights campaigners as undermining the UK's obligation to prevent torture under conventions such as the United Nations Convention Against Torture and the European Convention on Human Rights. The consent of the Attorney General's Office is required to commence a prosecution under this section. As of 2009, there was only one recorded instance of a successful prosecution for torture under the Act, that of former militant Faryadi Sarwar Zardad. == Section 141 – Prohibition of offensive weapons ==

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) provides the home secretary's power to define them through statutory instrument; 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. Various amendments have been made to the Schedule to add new weapons; an August 2016 amendment added zombie knives to the list of prohibited weapons. ==Section 171 – Commencement==

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) == See also ==