Crackdown on drunken street brawlers with harsher penalties for attackers

People who carry out drunken attacks on the streets will face tougher punishment under sentencing reforms.

The change, contained in new guidelines from the Government's Sentencing Council, means offenders who carry out spontaneous assaults will no longer escape with lighter penalties because their actions were not premeditated.

Instead they will be sentenced principally according to the harm they inflict, in a move intended to ensure courts deal most severely with the more serious attacks.

The reform is one of a number of proposals set out in a consultation on assault offences, such as GBH and causing actual bodily harm, published today by the Sentencing Council.

It says the aim is to ensure a "proportionate" and consistent approach is taken by judges and magistrates when dealing with such offences, and for sentencing to be easily understood by the public.

There will be slightly less emphasis on an attacker's intent and whether the assault was a first offence. People involved in drunken pub and street brawls which break out with no premeditation are likely to face heavier sanctions than at present if their violence causes significant injury.

By contrast, repeat offenders whose actions cause minimal or no harm could escape more lightly.

The council says one reason for the proposals is the general increase over recent years in sentences for assault: the average term for actual bodily harm rose 39 per cent between 1999 and 2008. The council states this trend will be "addressed" by the new rules, in an apparent sign that it expects the reforms to shorten sentences. It insists, however, that severe sentences remain necessary for the worst offences.

The more lenient overall approach that is hinted at would please Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke, who wants to shrink the record 85,000-strong prison population. Lord Justice Leveson, chairman of the Sentencing Council, said today he would welcome public comments on the proposals.

He added: "Our revisions set out a proposed guideline that means any offence of assault can be met with a proportionate sentence based on a consistent framework.

"This will make it easily applied by judges and readily understood both by victims and the public."