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Section 274A: Required sentence of custody for life for manslaughter of emergency worker

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

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

This section applies where—

a person aged 18 or over but under 21 is convicted of a relevant offence,
the offence was committed—
when the person was aged 16 or over, and
on or after the relevant commencement date, and
the offence was committed against an emergency worker acting in the exercise of functions as such a worker.

The court must impose a sentence of custody for life under section 272 unless the court is of the opinion that there are exceptional circumstances which—

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

For the purposes of subsection (1)(c) the circumstances in which an offence is to be taken as committed against a person acting in the exercise of functions as an emergency worker include circumstances where the offence takes place at a time when the person is not at work but is carrying out functions which, if done in work time, would have been in the exercise of functions as an emergency worker.

In this section “relevant offence” means the offence of manslaughter, but does not include—

manslaughter by gross negligence, or
manslaughter mentioned in section 2(3) or 4(1) of the Homicide Act 1957 or section 54(7) of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 (partial defences to murder).

In this section—

  • “emergency worker” has the meaning given by section 68;

  • “relevant commencement date” means the date on which section 3 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 (required life sentence for manslaughter of emergency worker) comes into force.

An offence the sentence for which is imposed under this section is not to be regarded as an offence the sentence for which is fixed by law.

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)(b) to have been committed on the last of those days.

About this text

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.