Longer prison sentences for serious driving offences

June 16, 2023

Exchange barrister, Anna Bond gives her take on the revised and new Sentencing Council Guidelines published on the 15th June 2023 for driving offences. They take effect from the 1st July 2023.

The new guidelines reflect the public’s changing attitude to this type of offending with more severe sentences.

There is also a guideline for the new offence of causing serious injury by careless driving.

See the full list, below:

Revised guidelines

  1. Causing death by dangerous driving
  2. Causing death by careless driving when under the influence of drink or drugs
  3. Causing death by careless driving
  4. Causing death by driving whilst disqualified
  5. Causing death by driving whilst unlicensed or uninsured
  6. Dangerous driving

New guidelines

  1. Causing serious injury by dangerous driving
  2. Causing serious injury by driving whilst disqualified
  3. Causing serious injury by careless driving
  4. Causing injury by wanton or furious driving
  5. Driving or attempting to drive with a specified drug above the specified limit
  6. Being in charge of a motor vehicle with a specified drug above the specified limit

REVISED GUIDELINES COMMENTARY

Causing death by dangerous driving

For offences committed on or after 28 June 2022, the maximum sentence is now life imprisonment and the minimum disqualification is 5 years with a compulsory extended re-test.

The previous guideline guided sentencers to the appropriate starting point based on the ‘nature of offence’ levels which were not very clear. The new guideline asks the court to determine culpability and assists sentencers in that it now lists characteristics which are determinative of each level:

  1. Culpability A offences will include (as before) driving that involved a deliberate decision to ignore the rules of the road and disregard for the risk of danger to others. But other characteristics are listed including prolonged use of a mobile phone, racing or competitive driving and lack of attention to driving for a substantial period of time. Of note is the fact that commission of the offence in the course of evading police will now place this offence in culpability A automatically.
  2. Culpability B offences will include driving whilst knowing that the vehicle has a dangerous defect or dangerous load, driving when deprived of adequate sleep or rest and driving whilst significantly impaired as a result of a known medical condition.
  3. Culpability C offences will be those where the driving was just over the threshold for dangerous driving.

In terms of starting points:

  • Level 1 offences under the previous guideline attracted an 8 year starting point with a range of 7 to 14. Under the new guideline, the starting point for culpability A offences is 12 years with a range of 8 to 18.
  • Level 2 offences under the previous guidelines attracted a 5 year starting point. Under the new guideline, the starting point for culpability B offences is 6 years with a range of 4 to 9.
  • Level 3 offences under the previous guideline and culpability C offences under the new guideline remain the same in terms of starting point and range (3 years starting point with a range of 2 to 5 years).

The new guideline also includes new aggravating factors including placing blame wrongly on others, vehicle poorly maintained and whether the victim was a vulnerable road user (pedestrian, cyclist, horse rider, motorcyclist).

Causing death by careless driving when under the influence of drink or drugs

The new guideline invites sentencers decide the level of culpability (with reference only to the driving) and then will determine the starting point based on the level/quantity of alcohol or drugs in the defendant’s system, their level of impairment, or their refusal to provide a specimen. This is similar to the previous approach but the old guideline only allowed for driving to fall into three categories with little explanation.

Causing death by careless driving

Again, this new guideline makes the sentencing exercise more straight forward in that it makes the different levels of culpability clearer. Starting points for the highest level will now be 2 years instead of 15 months custody.

Causing death by driving whilst disqualified/unlicensed/uninsured

The previous guideline dealt with causing death whilst driving unlicensed, disqualified or uninsured. There are now 2 guidelines: one for those who cause death whilst disqualified and one for those who cause death whilst unlicensed or uninsured.

The previous starting point for those disqualified was 12 months custody as they fell into the highest sentencing category. Under the new guideline, those who are disqualified will not automatically fall into that top bracket but will be separated into three levels of culpability. The most serious cases will be involve significant distances driven, a LGV/HGV/PSV being driven, driving for commercial purposes or obtaining the vehicle during the disqualification period. On the other hand, those who genuinely believed they were not disqualified or who were driving in a genuine and proven emergency will be the least culpable.

Despite this differing level of culpability, the starting points for all disqualified drivers who cause death has increased – those who are most culpable will receive a starting point of 5 years. Those who fall into the lowest culpability bracket face a starting point of 18 months – a 6 month increase from the previous guideline where all disqualified drivers (no matter how culpable) faced the same starting point. This is a drastic shift considering that the top of the range under the previous guideline for the worst offenders was only 2 years custody.

Those convicted of causing death whilst driving unlicensed or uninsured will be separated into differing levels of culpability. Previously, an offender convicted of this offence with no aggravating factors faced a starting point of a medium level community order. If one aggravating factor was present, the starting point was 26 weeks custody. Under the new guideline, the factors which place a defendant in the highest bracket have been clarified – simply having 2 or more aggravating factors does not suffice and the top bracket will be reserved for those driving for commercial purposes, for significant distances or driving a LGV/HGV/PSV.

Dangerous driving

There was previously no guideline for dangerous driving in the Crown Court. This new guideline is therefore long anticipated and will make the sentencing exercise much clearer. Unsurprisingly, those who commit the offence when evading police will fall into the highest category (culpability A) and if any injury or damage is caused as a result, the starting point will be 18 months custody.

It is interesting that racing and prolonged use of a mobile phone will also mean that a defendant falls into the highest category of culpability.

–

NEW GUIDELINES COMMENTARY

Causing serious injury by dangerous driving

This offence attracts a maximum sentence of 5 years custody, an obligatory minimum 2 year disqualification and a compulsory extended re-test. The new guideline mirrors the guideline for causing death by dangerous driving as far as the assessment of culpability is concerned.

Harm is split into two categories:

  1. Category 1 – particularly grave or life threatening injury caused, harm that results in lifelong dependency on third party care/medical treatment and permanent, irreversible injury or condition which has a substantial and long term effect on day to day activities/work
  2. Category 2 – all other cases.

The least culpable offenders who cause harm which is not category 1 will still face imprisonment. The guidelines do not allow for community orders and a judge would have to be invited to go outside of the guidelines in order to impose one.

Causing serious injury by driving whilst disqualified

This mirrors the ‘causing death by driving whilst disqualified guideline in terms of assessing culpability. Harm is decided with regard to the same test as that mentioned above (separating the grave/life threatening/permanent/irreversible injuries from all other cases).

Again, custody is the starting point for all offenders but the guideline does recommend community orders for those falling into medium or lower culpability who cause a lower level of harm.

Causing serious injury by careless driving

Community orders are more likely for offenders who commit this offence unless they fall into the top bracket of culpability and harm (falling just below the threshold for dangerous driving).

Causing injury by wanton or furious driving

This guideline of course applies to the drivers or riders of any kind of vehicle or carriage, including bicycles and scooters. It will apply to all injury and those who cause death by wanton or furious driving. The guideline will cover injury or death caused by a motorist ‘off road’ such as in a field or a dirt track.

Those who fall into the highest bracket face a starting point of 18 months and a range of 1 to 2 years custody.

Driving or attempting to drive with a specified drug above the specified limit

This guideline has long been awaited. ‘drug driving’ as its colloquially called has not had a guideline up to this point, despite its common appearance in the Magistrates’ Courts.

The new guideline notes:

Note: It is not possible to draw a direct connection between the levels of a substance detected and the level of harm. The limits for illegal drugs are set in line with a zero tolerance approach but ruling out accidental exposure. The limits for drugs that may be medically prescribed are set in line with a road safety risk-based approach, at levels above the normal concentrations found with therapeutic use. This is different from the approach taken when setting the limit for alcohol, where the limit was set at a level where the effect of the alcohol would be expected to have impaired a person’s driving ability. The analysis of drugs in blood is more complex than that for alcohol and there is a larger margin of uncertainty in the measurements. Concentrations of specified substances in blood for the purposes of this offence are expressed in terms of ‘not less than’ which takes account of the margin of uncertainty for the particular substance.

Obvious signs of impairment or evidence of unacceptable standard of driving are the two factors indicative of greater harm. There is no indication of what ‘obvious signs of impairment’ will include.

It is worth noting that those found with two drugs in their system or drugs AND alcohol (even though the second drug or the alcohol isn’t of such an amount to place them above the limit) will automatically fall into culpability A which attracts a starting point of 12 weeks or a medium level community order depending on the associated harm.

Being in charge of a motor vehicle with a specified drug above the specified limit

The maximum sentence for this offence is 2 months imprisonment though the starting point for the most serious offences on the guideline is a high level community order. Aggravating factors likely to cause an offence to cross the custody threshold are previous convictions, failure to comply with current court orders and an offence committed on licence. Interestingly, the guideline does not list any other offence specific aggravating factors.

To see the full published guidelines, click here.

Anna Bond is a member of the Exchange Chambers driving team. To instruct her in a driving matter, contact her clerk, Andy Leech.

Back to News