Possession of a controlled drug sentencing guideline survey in the magistrates’ courts

Please complete the form after you have sentenced the offender or committed the offender to the Crown Court for sentence (if applicable). Where magistrates sit as a bench, it may be possible for this to be done by one of the bench while the Chair is reading out the sentence.

Please do not complete the form if:

• You are sentencing an under 18-year-old. The information is being collected for adult offenders only.
• The sentence was activated following a suspended sentence or conditional discharge.

If an offender has been sentenced for more than one offence of possession of a controlled drug, please complete a form for the PRINCIPAL OFFENCE (the offence attracting the highest sentence). If the sentences are the same, please select the most recent.

If there are multiple offenders whose main offence is possession of a controlled drug, please complete one form for each offender.

The form should take 5-8 minutes to complete.

Questions marked with an asterisk (*) are required to be completed before proceeding to the next section.

If you have any queries about completing this survey, please contact the Office of the Sentencing Council at: research@sentencingcouncil.gov.uk.