Overview
- The Ministry of Justice will extend the deadline from 28 days to six months for victims and bereaved families to ask for a review of an unduly lenient sentence.
- Ministers will add a legal duty in the Victims’ Code to tell survivors at sentencing that they can request a review.
- The reform will be inserted into the Victims and Courts Bill now before Parliament, and it will apply to the most serious crimes such as murder, rape and robbery.
- Under the Unduly Lenient Sentence Scheme, the Attorney General can ask the Court of Appeal to review a sentence, so a longer window could bring more referrals and give families time to gather advice.
- Campaigners, including Tracey Hanson who missed the old cutoff in her son Josh’s case, welcomed the change, while the Conservatives called it a U-turn.