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Produced by the Sentencing Academy

Snapshot 13

Manslaughter

Bringing together relevant statistics and trends relating to sentencing

by Annalena Wolcke

Last updated: Aug 2026

Overview

  • Sentencing Council guideline range: 1-year to 24-year prison sentence
  • Maximum sentence: life imprisonment
  • Convictions have fluctuated over the last 5 years, with a high of 169 convictions in 2024 and a low of 123 in 2021
  • Convictions in 2025: 133
  • This snapshot summarises key trends over the past 5 years

Sentences Imposed

Figure 1: Sentences for Manslaughter, 2021-2025

  • Over 80% of convictions resulted in a term of immediate imprisonment.12
  • 11% of convictions resulted in a Hospital Order, which is a court sentence that sends a person to a psychiatric hospital for medical treatment instead of prison.

Figure 2: Sentences Imposed for Manslaughter, 2021-2025

  • The proportion of immediate custodial sentences decreased by around 7%, while the proportion of Hospital Orders almost doubled.

Immediate Prison Sentence Lengths

Figure 3: Prison Sentence Lengths, Manslaughter, 2025

  • The most frequent sentence range is between 10 to 15 years, accounting for over 30% of all immediate custodial sentences.
  • 8% of prison sentences are over 15 years.

Outcomes by Sex

Figure 4: Sentencing Outcomes by Sex, Manslaughter, 2025

  • Female (n=16); Male (n=112)
  • In 2025, the custody rate for manslaughter was higher for men (87%) than for women (56%).

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 [email protected]

  1. Data source for all figures: Data calculated from Ministry of Justice (2026), Criminal Justice Statistics Quarterly: December 2025, published 30th of April. Outcomes by offence data tool, Table 2. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-statistics-quarterly-december-2025 ↩︎
  2. ‘Other sanctions’ include: community order, and the category ‘otherwise dealt with’ ↩︎