Authorized a pilot program in four magistrates' courts allowing for regular judicial reviews and amendments of community and suspended sentence orders for adult female offenders.

These Regulations establish a pilot program in Leeds, Liverpool, North Tyneside, and South Tyneside Magistrates' Courts that subjects certain community and suspended sentence orders to special judicial review procedures.

The regulations apply to women aged 18 or over who are convicted between 5 October 2026 and 5 April 2028, provided they are not registered sex offenders and have not committed specified violent or weapons-related offenses.

Under these procedures, courts gain powers to mandate regular progress reviews, adjust sentence requirements based on offender behavior, and impose short-term custodial sentences of up to 28 days for breaches.

The regulations amended prior 2023 and 2024 Sentencing Act procedural regulations to extend the qualification period for special procedures for community and suspended sentence orders until March 31, 2029, for orders made in England and Wales.

These Regulations, made under powers in the Sentencing Act 2020, amend previous regulations from 2023 and 2024 concerning special procedures applied to community orders and suspended sentence orders.

Specifically, the amendment extends the qualification period for these special procedures for both sets of previous regulations until March 31, 2029, ensuring that specified cases continue to receive this treatment if the relevant order is made by that date.

The regulations amended Schedule 21 of the Sentencing Code by inserting new statutory aggravating factors related to relationship breakdown and asphyxiation methods when determining minimum life sentences for murder.

The Lord Chancellor enacted the Sentencing Act 2020 (Amendment of Schedule 21) Regulations 2025, following consultation and parliamentary approval, to amend Schedule 21 of the Sentencing Code, which dictates minimum terms for mandatory life sentences for murder.

These Regulations introduce two new statutory aggravating factors that sentencing courts must consider for murders committed on or after the regulations come into force: first, whether the murder was connected to the end (or intended end) of the offender's intimate personal relationship with the victim; and second, whether the murder involved strangulation, suffocation, or asphyxiation.