Member

The Government are satisfied that a further statutory aggravating factor is not needed. This is because the sentencing guidelines already require a sentencer to consider additional, non-statutory factors, and these include where the offence has been committed as part of a group, or there is evidence of community or wider impact, and that list is not a closed one. The kind of gang-related activity which is of concern to all right-thinking people can and should be taken into account by sentencers. My own recent experience as a judge sitting in a central London Crown Court is that judges would, and do, already treat gang issues, where clearly proved, as an aggravating factor in terms of sentence.