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Produced by the Sentencing Academy

Manslaughter

Snapshot 13

Bringing together relevant statistics and trends relating to sentencing

by Annalena Wolcke

Published: 25 Jul 2025
Last updated: Jul 2025

Overview

  • Sentencing Council guideline range: 1-year to 24-year prison sentence
  • Maximum sentence: life imprisonment
  • Convictions have changed slightly over the last 10 years, fluctuating between 144 and 196 convictions per year
  • This snapshot summarises key trends over the past 5 years

Sentences Imposed

Figure 1: Sentences for Manslaughter, 2020-2024

  • Over 88% of convictions resulted in a term of immediate imprisonment.12

Figure 2: Sentences Imposed for Manslaughter, 2020-2024

  • Trends in the use of principal sanctions for manslaughter have been stable over the last 5 years.

Immediate Prison Sentence Lengths

Figure 3: Prison Sentence Lengths, Manslaughter, 2020–2024

  • The most frequent sentence range is between 10 to 15 years, accounting for almost 30% of all immediate custodial sentences.
  • 12% of prison sentences are over 15 years.

Outcomes by Sex

Figure 4: Sentencing Outcomes by Sex, Manslaughter, 2020-2024

  • Female (n=81); Male (n=802)
  • Between 2020-2024, the custody rate for manslaughter was similar for men (89%) and women (85%).

These rates do not account for various factors that influence sentencing decisions, such as the offender’s criminal history and the seriousness of the specific offence. Additional research would be needed to determine whether gender affected the sentence imposed.

This Snapshot is one of a series on sentencing trends in England & Wales. Others can be found here. For further information, contact Annalena Wolcke at a.wolcke@sentencingacademy.org.uk

  1. Data source for all figures: Criminal Justice Statistics Quarterly December 2024, published 15th of May 2025. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-december-2024 ↩︎
  2. ‘Other sanctions’ include: community order, and the category ‘otherwise dealt with’ ↩︎