Easton & Piper: Sentencing and Punishment 2e 
DevelopmentsEaston & Piper: Sentencing and Punishment 2e
Chapter 05
5.4.1 The Criminal Justice Act 2003 pp 160-161
Dangerous offenders: Sections 13-18 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act (CJIA) 2008, which amend sections 225-231 of the Criminal Justice Act (CJA) 2003 in relation to 'dangerous offenders', have been in force since July 14th 2008. This means that the courts now have greater discretion in relation to sentences of imprisonment of public protection and the extended sentence.
During debates in the House of Lords on the crucial amendments to s229 of the CJA 2003 there was discussion as to whether the following sections of the original provision had necessarily entailed a different approach by the courts or whether the courts had defined the provision in line with what Parliament had intended.
s229 (original version)
(2) If at the time when that offence was committed the offender had not been convicted in any part of the United Kingdom of any relevant offence or was aged under 18, the court in making the assessment referred to in subsection (1)(b)—
(a) must take into account all such information as is available to it about the nature and circumstances of the offence,
(b) may take into account any information which is before it about any pattern of behaviour of which the offence forms part, and
(c) may take into account any information about the offender which is before it.
(3) If at the time when that offence was committed the offender was aged 18 or over and had been convicted in any part of the United Kingdom of one or more relevant offences, the court must assume that there is such a risk as is mentioned in subsection (1)(b) unless, after taking into account—
(a) all such information as is available to it about the nature and circumstances of each of the offences,
(b) where appropriate, any information which is before it about any pattern of behaviour of which any of the offences forms part, and
(c) any information about the offender which is before it,
the court considers that it would be unreasonable to conclude that there is such a risk.
In Johnson (see p 159 of the book) the court had noted that s 229(2) 'adds nothing to the approach which the sentencer would normally take, that is, to consider all the information available to the court ... it is difficult to see how any sentencer, properly forming his judgment, would properly fail to take all matters of possible relevance into account'. Lord Lloyd of Berwick, in the debate on s229, noted that the Considine case(R v Considine(Lawrence Philip) [2007] EWCA Crim 1166) expressly approved that comment and had written to the Lord Chancellor for clarification, given the opposing interpretation by Lord Bach. The response that 'The fact that the courts did in fact, by a process of case law development, confirm by the end of 2007 that the statute reflects case law derived in other contexts as to assessing dangerousness is helpful' was taken by Lord Berwick to imply that 'the courts might have taken a different view in assessing dangerousness in relation to the new, indeterminate sentence than they have always done in relation to the ordinary life sentence'.
This is only a small part of the fascinating debate on this section in the 3rd Reading of CJ&I Bill on 30 April 2008. It points up the concerns and confusion surrounding the meaning and application of the original wording which is, thankfully, now replaced.
5.4.4. Early release pp 165-171
Section 26 of the CJA 2008 regarding the release of certain long-term prisoners under the Criminal Justice Act 1991 makes several amendments to Part 2 of that Act and has been in force since 9 June 2008.
(See, also, the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 pages on this online resource centre)
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