The prisoner, sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life tariff for the murders of children, now appealed against the imposition of the whole life tarriff.
Held: The appeal failed. It was possible for a Home Secretary to set a whole life tariff for a person subject to a compulsory sentence of life imprisonment, provided that he was ready to review such a decision from time to time, where it was felt that no amount of time served would exhaust the need for retribution and deterrence in the circumstances of the case. Such a sentence could be brought to an end by a decision of the Home Secretary or by the death of the prisoner. An earlier tariff did not give rise to a proper expectation of being freed.
Lord Steyn said that some crimes would be sufficiently heinous to deserve life long incarceration for the purposes of pure punishment. He continued: ‘There is nothing logically inconsistent with . . saying that there are cases where the crimes are so wicked that even if the prisoner is detained until he or she dies it will not exhaust the requirements of retribution and deterrence’.
Lord Browne-Wilkinson, Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead, Lord Steyn, Lord Hutton Lord Hobhouse of Woodborough
Times 31-Mar-2000, Gazette 14-Apr-2000, [2000] UKHL 21, [2000] 2 All ER 385, [2000] 2 WLR 730, [2000] Prison LR 71, [2001] 1 AC 410
House of Lords, Bailii
Prison Act 1952 27, Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965
England and Wales
Citing:
Appeal from – Hindley v Regina, Secretary Of State For The Home Department CA 5-Nov-1998
The Home Secretary could impose a whole life tariff (better non-tariff) on a prisoner subject to life sentence, but must leave open possibility of review and receive representations. A tariff can be increased before being communicated to the . .
Cited – Regina v Secretary of State for the Home Department ex parte Doody and Others HL 25-Jun-1993
A mandatory lifer is to be permitted to suggest the period of actual sentence to be served. The Home Secretary must give reasons for refusing a lifer’s release. What fairness requires in any particular case is ‘essentially an intuitive judgment’, . .
Cited – Regina v North and East Devon Health Authority ex parte Coughlan and Secretary of State for Health Intervenor and Royal College of Nursing Intervenor CA 16-Jul-1999
Consultation to be Early and Real Listening
The claimant was severely disabled as a result of a road traffic accident. She and others were placed in an NHS home for long term disabled people and assured that this would be their home for life. Then the health authority decided that they were . .
Cited – In Re Findlay, in re Hogben HL 1985
A public authority, and the Prison Service in particular, is free, within the limits of rationality, to decide on any policy as to how to exercise its discretions; it is entitled to change its policy from time to time for the future, and a person . .
Cited – Regina v Secretary of State for the Home Department, Ex Parte Pierson HL 24-Jul-1997
The Home Secretary may not later extend the tariff for a lifer, after it had been set by an earlier Home Secretary, merely to satisfy needs of retribution and deterrence: ‘A power conferred by Parliament in general terms is not to be taken to . .
Cited – Regina v Secretary of State Home Department, ex parte McCartney CACD 25-May-1994
Under the applicable legislation the trial judge fixed the tariff for discretionary life sentence prisoners, but there were transitional provisions which required the Secretary of State to fix the tariff for discretionary lifers who had been . .
At First Instance – Regina v Secretary of State for Home Department ex parte Hindley Admn 18-Dec-1997
The Home Secretary has the power to fix the tariff sentence for a lifer at her whole life where that was needed in order to satisfy the requirements of retribution and of deterrence.
Lord Bingham of Cornhill CJ said: ‘I can see no reason, in . .
Cited by:
Cited – Oakes and Others v Regina CACD 21-Nov-2012
A specially constituted CACD heard sentencing appeals for defendants serving life terms for very grave crimes, and in particular, the judicial assessment of the minimum term to be served by the appellants for the purposes of punishment and . .
Cited – Vinter And Others v The United Kingdom ECHR 9-Jul-2013
(Grand Chamber) The three appellants had each been convicted of exceptionally serious murders, and been sentenced to mandatory life sentences, but with provision that they could not be eligible for early release, making them whole life terms. They . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Criminal Sentencing
Updated: 31 December 2021; Ref: scu.85533