The Sentencing Advisory Panel has today published a proposal that the Court of Appeal should issue a sentencing guideline on the offence of causing death by dangerous driving.

The Panel believes that this offence causes particular difficulty for sentencers. On the one hand, an offence involving a person's death is always serious, and understandably leads to calls for severe sentences. On the other hand, an offender convicted of this offence did not deliberately cause death or serious injury. In some cases, the driver may have made a momentary error, but in the worst type of case he or she may be very much to blame, having driven for several miles with complete disregard for the safety of others.

In its proposal the Panel advises that, to mark the gravity of an offence resulting in death, the starting point for sentence should normally be imprisonment. The standard of the offender's driving at the time of the offence should be the primary factor in determining the seriousness of an offence.

The Panel recommends:

• a short custodial sentence for an offence arising from a momentary error of judgment or short period of bad driving, where there are no aggravating features;
• a custodial sentence of 2-5 years when the standard of the offender's driving is more highly dangerous, e.g. aggressive driving or greatly excessive speed, or when the offender has consumed alcohol or drugs;
• a custodial sentence over 5 years, up to the maximum of 10 years, for the most serious offences, where the offender has driven with complete disregard for the safety of other road users and where other aggravating features are present.

Factors that would increase the seriousness of an offence include:

• the death of more than one victim or serious injury to one or more victims in addition to the death;
• failing to stop or falsely claiming that one of the victims was responsible for the crash; and
• previous convictions for motoring offences, especially if they involved bad driving or the consumption of excessive alcohol before driving.

Notes for editors

1.    The Sentencing Advisory Panel is an independent advisory and consultative body constituted under sections 80 and 81 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. The Panel is sponsored by the Home Office and the Lord Chancellor's Department. It started work on 1 July 1999. Its function is to provide fully researched, objective advice to the Court of Appeal to assist the Court when it frames or revises sentencing guidelines.

2.    Section 1 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, as substituted by section 1 of the Road Traffic Act 1991, establishes the offence of causing 'the death of another person by driving a mechanically propelled vehicle dangerously on a road or other public place.' The offence is triable only on indictment, and the maximum penalty is 10 years' imprisonment. Disqualification for a minimum period of two years and endorsement are obligatory, and the offence carries 3 to 11 penalty points. The Government has announced its intention of increasing the maximum sentence to 14 years, but no date has been given for the change.

3.    Since 26 June 2002, when the Panel published its third annual report to the Home Secretary and the Lord Chancellor, the Panel has published a proposal that the Court of Appeal should frame a sentencing guideline on offences involving child pornography (published August 2002; guidelines issued by the Court of Appeal in Oliver and others, 21 November 2002). The Court of Appeal has also made use of the Panel's advice in guideline judgments on rape (in Millberry and others, 9 December 2002) and domestic burglary (in McInerney and Keating, 20 December 2002).

Copies of the Panel's latest proposal may be obtained from: Gareth Sweny, Sentencing Advisory Panel, Room G11, Allington Towers, 19 Allington Street, London SW1E 5EB.