Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008
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An Act to make further provision about criminal justice (including provision about the police) and dealing with offenders and defaulters; to make further provision about the management of offenders; to amend the criminal law; to make further provision for combatting crime and disorder; to make provision about the mutual recognition of financial penalties; to amend the Repatriation of Prisoners Act 1984; to make provision for a new immigration status in certain cases involving criminality; to make provision about the automatic deportation of criminals under the UK Borders Act 2007; to amend section 127 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 and to confer power to suspend the operation of that section; and for connected purposes.
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| Citation | 2008 c 4 |
| Introduced by | David Hanson |
| Territorial extent |
 UK:England and Wales Scotland Northern Ireland |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 8 May 2008 |
| Commencement | mostly on 14 July 2008; see below for further dates |
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Status: Not fully in force
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| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Revised text of statute as amended | |
The Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 (c 4) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which makes significant changes in many areas of the criminal justice system in England and Wales and, to a lesser extent, in Scotland and Northern Ireland. In particular, it changes the law relating to custodial sentences and the early release of prisoners to reduce prison overcrowding, which reached crisis levels in 2008. It also reduces the right of prison officers to take industrial action, and changed the law on the deportation of foreign criminals. It received royal assent on 8 May 2008, but most of its provisions came into force on various later dates. Many sections came into force on 14 July 2008.
Section 1 of the Act provides a comprehensive list of new community orders, called youth rehabilitation orders, which can be imposed on offenders aged under 18. They can only be imposed if the offence is imprisonable (i.e. an adult could receive a prison sentence for the offence) and, if the offender is aged under 15, he is a persistent offender. Neither of these criteria are necessary under the old law. (This section and sections 2 to 4 came into force on 30 November 2009.)
Section 11 deals with adult offenders, and provides that adult community orders may not be imposed unless the offence is imprisonable, or unless the offender has been fined (without additional punishment) on three previous occasions. (This section came into force on 14 July 2008.)
Section 35 extends the availability of referral orders (sentences designed to rehabilitate young offenders). Previously only available to first offenders, referral orders may be passed on offenders with previous convictions, subject to certain conditions being met. (This section came into force on 27 April 2009.)
The Criminal Justice Act 2003 introduced mandatory sentencing for violent and sexual offenders, which significantly reduced judicial discretion in sentencing defendants who judges considered were a danger to the public. The increase in life sentences and "extended sentences" which resulted, contributed to a major crisis of prison overcrowding, in which the prison population of England and Wales reached unprecedented levels. Sections 13 to 17 restored a proportion of judicial discretion and imposed stricter criteria for the imposition of such sentences. Section 25 provided for the automatic early release of prisoners serving extended (as opposed to life) sentences, instead of discretionary release by the Parole Board. (These sections all came into force on 14 July 2008.)
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