Offenders who refuse to attend sentencing could lose prison privileges under new rules
Offenders in England and Wales who refuse to attend their sentencing could lose prison privileges or be kept in their cells for weeks, under government changes that give judges wider powers, The Guardian reported.
Current law already requires offenders to attend their sentencing hearing. Refusing can bring a fine or up to two further years in prison for contempt of court, the offence of defying a court's authority. The new measures would add prison-based sanctions on top of that.
Under the proposed rules, judges could impose loss of prison privileges for 84 days, cell confinement for 21 days, loss of social visits for 27 days, or restrict visits to once every four weeks for 84 days. Prisoners in England and Wales who follow the rules can already earn privileges under the Incentives and Earned Privileges Scheme, and the new sanctions would target those privileges.
Younger offenders would be treated differently. Those aged 18 to 20 could have privileges removed for up to 21 days, or be confined to their cells for up to 10 days. Visits from prisoners' children would be exempt from the sanctions, in order to help maintain family ties and where a visit is in the child's best interests.
The rules were to be laid before parliament on Thursday, 22 October, and are due to come into effect next year. The government had set out the plans in a news announcement on 21 October, headlined on gov.uk with the words "Cowardly killers who dodge sentencing face tough new prison punishments".
The idea is not new. The UK government first announced plans to give judges powers to force criminals to attend sentencing on 30 August 2023, Reuters reported at the time. In May 2025, a government announcement said that for the first time judges would be able to hand down prison punishments for criminals who refuse to attend sentencing.
Victims' families welcomed those powers when they were announced. They said the additional measures meant offenders could not "opt out" of justice, the BBC reported.
