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Section 268B: Serious terrorism sentence of detention in a young offender institution: circumstances in which required

Sentencing Act 2020 · 2020 c. 17View on legislation.gov.uk

Part 10: Custodial sentences — CHAPTER 3: Adults aged under 21

Subsection (2) applies where a court is dealing with an offender for a serious terrorism offence (see section 306(2)) where—

the offence was committed on or after the day on which section 4 of the Counter-Terrorism and Sentencing Act 2021 came into force,
the offender was aged 18 or over when the offence was committed,
the offender is aged under 21 when convicted of the offence,
the court is of the opinion that there is a significant risk to members of the public of serious harm occasioned by the commission by the offender of further serious terrorism offences or other specified offences (see section 308),
the court does not impose a sentence of custody for life, and
the risk of multiple deaths condition is met.

The court must impose a serious terrorism sentence of detention in a young offender institution under section 268A unless the court is of the opinion that there are exceptional circumstances which—

relate to the offence or to the offender, and
justify not doing so.

The risk of multiple deaths condition is that the court is of the opinion that—

either—
the serious terrorism offence, or
the combination of the offence and one or more offences associated with it,

was very likely to result in or contribute to (whether directly or indirectly) the deaths of at least two people as a result of an act of terrorism (within the meaning of section 1 of the Terrorism Act 2000), and

the offender was, or ought to have been, aware of that likelihood.

It is irrelevant for the purposes of determining whether the risk of multiple deaths condition is met whether or not any death actually occurred.

Where an offence is found to have been committed over a period of 2 or more days, or at some time during a period of 2 or more days, it must be taken for the purposes of subsection (1) to have been committed on the last of those days.

The pre-sentence report requirements (see section 30) apply to the court in relation to forming the opinion mentioned in subsection (1)(d).

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This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.