Longer prison sentences for driving offences

The Sentencing Council published new guidelines on the 15^th June 2023 for driving offences. These guidelines took effect from the 1^st July 2023. The guidance published reflects concerns from the general public regarding this specific type of offending. The courts have now been provided greater and harsher sentencing powers for any motorist convicted of a serious driving offence.

Prior to the new sentencing guidelines taking effect, any motorist convicted of a drug driving offence would normally face a minimum 12 month driving disqualification, a fine and a criminal record. Anyone who is arrested for drug driving and are over the legal limit for a specified controlled drug where there is evidence of obvious impairment and a poor standard of driving could face an immediate custodial sentence of 12 weeks.

In summary, the Sentencing Council have increased the culpability (how much someone is to blame) in drug driving offences. There is a definite reflection on the risk posed to other motorists given that the new guidelines focus on poor standards of driving and obvious signs of impairment. It is not defined what 'obvious impairment' will be but we can assume that this will be features such as:

• Glazed eyes
• Slurred speech
• Dilated pupils
• Being unsteady on your feet
• Acting in a strange manner 
• Erratic or unusual behaviour
• Repeating yourself
• Lethargic or tired

It is clear from the recent amendments that the sentences that offenders have been receiving for serious motoring offences have not been considered harsh enough in England and Wales. Motoring offences, alongside murder and rape are the most reported on by the press and tabloid newspapers in the United Kingdom. Due to this we can expect to see additional changes to not only the

Causing Death by Dangerous Driving

If an offence was committed on or after 28th June 2023 the maximum prison sentence is now life. The minimum disqualification period is 5 years and anyone convicted will be made to taking an extended driving test. This is the most serious motoring offence under the Road Traffic Act and will often carry a mandatory prison sentence. The new guideline for this offence 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 or motorcyclist).

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.

Racing with other motorists and prolonged use of a mobile phone/device will also mean that a defendant falls into the highest category of culpability.

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

Drug driving has not had a guideline until now.

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 an 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 if the second drug or alcohol isn’t of such an amount to place them above the legal limit) will automatically fall into culpability A. This category attracts a starting point of 12 weeks imprisonment or a medium level community order depending on the 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.