Sentencing Act receives Royal Assent

The Sentencing Act 2026 received Royal Assent on Thursday 22 January, meaning it is set to become law.

The legislation takes forward a number of recommendations of the independent sentencing review, chaired by the former justice secretary and PRT trustee David Gauke, to reduce pressure on prisons and address the prison capacity crisis. These include proposals to increase the use of suspended sentences, regularise release points from standard determinate sentences, and reform the use of recall.

Although the legislation has now been agreed to by Parliament, the majority of the Act does not come into force immediately. Different provisions of the Act will be commenced by the government at different times.

Section 49 of the Act confirms that the following sections will come into force within two months from the date it received its Royal Assent (assumed to be 22 March):

• The presumption to suspend short sentences of 12 months or less (s.1–2)
• Income reduction orders (s.3)
• Purposes of sentencing (s.4)
• Extension of deferment of sentence (s.5)
• Offenders of particular concern (s.7-9)
• Whole life orders for murder of police, prison or probation officer (s.11)
• Sentencing Council changes (s.19–20)
• Scrapping of SoS power to appoint law enforcement members to Parole Board (s.40)
• Increase to release point for repatriated offenders serving fixed term sentences for murder from 1/3rd to 2/3rds (s.41)
• High Court referral for Parole Board decisions for unconditional release in certain life sentence cases (s.43)

As yet, there is no confirmed date for the implementation of the parts of the Act which make provision for the recall of certain fixed term prisoners, or the regularisation of release points of prisoners serving standard determinate sentence. The government has said it expects to bring the latter into force in the “autumn”.

It is expected that the government will publish a commencement order confirming the implementation dates of the remaining parts of the Act in due course.

PRT’s advice and information service will be preparing information about the Act and what it means for people in prison.

PRT’s deputy director Mark Day has written a blog on the key changes that were made to the legislation during the debate in the House of Lords.