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Section 259: Offenders who commit murder etc when under 18: duty to detain at Her Majesty's pleasure

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

Part 10: Custodial sentences — CHAPTER 2: Offenders aged under 18

This section applies where—

a court is dealing with a person convicted of—
murder, or
any other offence the sentence for which is fixed by law as life imprisonment, and
the person appears to the court to have been aged under 18 at the time the offence was committed.

The court must sentence the offender to be detained during Her Majesty's pleasure.

Subsection (2) applies notwithstanding anything in this or any other Act.

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.