Good progress is being made in delivering the Government\u2019s action plan in tackling the use of acid and other corrosives substances in violent attacks.<\/p>
<\/p>
The Sentencing Council has issued an important clarifying note which makes it clear that the use of a corrosive substance is a factor that shows high culpability on the part of the offender and would indicate a greater level of offence seriousness which should be reflected in sentencing. The Sentencing Council are currently developing a new guideline on possession of dangerous weapons and threats to use them which is expected to be ready in early 2018.<\/p>
<\/p>
On 14 October we published a consultation paper on offensive and dangerous weapons. This included the proposal to create a new minimum custodial sentence for those convicted of a second or subsequent offence of possessing a corrosive substance in public. The consultation closed on 9 December.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4399", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Victoria Atkins"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Louth and Horncastle"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Victoria Atkins"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2017-12-11", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2017-12-11T16:15:04.2Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Home Office"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Home Office"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2017-12-05", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Crimes of Violence: Acids"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress the Government is making on its review of sentencing powers for acid attacks.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/163", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "East Ham"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Stephen Timms"} ], "uin" : "117738"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 1, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }