The Taking Account of Convictions (EU Exit) (Amendment) Regulations 2020

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations are made in exercise of the powers conferred by section 8B of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 to implement Part 3 of the Agreement on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community (“the withdrawal agreement”).

The purpose of these Regulations is to implement Article 62(1)(g) of Part 3, Title V of the withdrawal agreement which preserves the application of Council Framework Decision 2008/675/JHA of 24 July 2008 on taking account of convictions in the member States of the European Union in respect of new criminal proceedings instituted but not concluded before the end of the transition period.

Part 2 of these Regulations amends the Sentencing Act 2020 (c.17) which consolidated primary legislation relating to sentencing procedure and relevant secondary legislation and introduced the Sentencing Code. Part 3 of these Regulations amends Part 6 (taking account of convictions) of the Criminal Justice (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/780) by which amendments were made to retained EU law to remove reciprocal arrangements based on Council Framework Decision 2008/675/JHA requiring known convictions in member States to be taken into account, to the extent national law requires national convictions to be taken into account. Part 1 of these Regulations ensures that, if these Regulations come into force before the Sentencing Code, then the amendments made by section 1 of the Sentencing (Pre-consolidation Amendments) Act 2020 (c. 9) do not affect any amendment made by these Regulations. Section 1 of that Act provides for all offenders convicted after commencement of the Sentencing Code to be sentenced by applying the sentencing law and procedure in the Sentencing Code regardless of when the offence was committed, and has the effect of removing transitional provision in relation to previous convictions in the member States of the European Union, which are accordingly made in these Regulations instead.

A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no significant impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen.