Law of homicide

Photo of the Old Bailey statue of justice.

Reviewing the law relating to homicide offences, including full and partial defences, and the existing sentencing framework for murder.

Consultation paper on homicide offences

The Law Commission has published a consultation paper on homicide offences. This constitutes the first strand of the homicide review, with two further strands of work, respectively on defences and the sentencing framework for murder, to follow.

Find out how to respond

We invite consultees to submit responses via the online response form.

Alternatively, you can respond by email or by post (see our contact details at the end of this page).

Consultation opened: 17 June 2026
Consultation closes: 30 September 2026

Our provisional proposals for reform

Our provisional proposals aim to ensure that homicide offences accurately reflect the defendant’s culpability and that, on conviction, the defendant would receive a proportionate sentence. To this end, we propose the creation of a three-tier structure of homicide offences. Key provisional proposals include:

A division of murder into two degrees: first-degree murder (intention to kill) and second-degree murder (intention to cause serious injury). First-degree murder would attract the mandatory life sentence, whereas second-degree murder would attract a maximum sentence of life imprisonment (discretionary life sentence).
A new verdict of “murder with a partial defence” to replace the current verdict of (voluntary) manslaughter when the defendant killed with the intention to kill but a partial defence applies. The verdict would attract a maximum sentence of life imprisonment (discretionary life sentence).
A more coherent and principled reform of manslaughter offences to ensure that reckless manslaughter, unlawful dangerous act manslaughter and gross negligence manslaughter more fairly distinguish forms of liability while preserving the flexibility required to criminalise a wide range of fatal conduct.

We also make provisional proposals and invite evidence on a number of other homicide offences, including:

Infanticide, for which we provisionally propose that the offence/defence be retained.
“Mercy” or consensual killings, for which we provisionally propose that a bespoke offence is not justified.
The need for a bespoke offence to criminalise the supply of unlawful drugs resulting in the victim’s death.
The need for a bespoke offence to criminalise a culpable failure to seek medical assistance or intervention and death results.
The need for a bespoke offence to criminalise controlling or coercive behaviour in an intimate or family relationship where that abusive conduct contributes to the victim’s suicide; or a possible aggravating factor at sentencing for criminal offences commonly charged in domestic abuse cases where that abuse contributes to the victim’s suicide.

We do not make provisional proposals to reform the law of complicity (sometimes called “joint enterprise liability”), since the law does not apply exclusively to homicide offences but across the whole criminal law. However, the proposed changes to the structure of homicide offences would, in some homicide cases, facilitate a more accurate differentiation between the culpability of a principal offender (who committed the fatal act) and an accessory (who assisted or encouraged the principal offender), resulting in more proportionate sentences.

Background (Back to top)

The law of homicide was subject to a thorough review by the Law Commission of England and Wales in the early 2000s. We published recommendations for reform of partial defences to murder in 2004. Many of our recommendations were implemented in the Coroners and Justice Act 2009.

We published recommendations for the reform of murder, manslaughter and infanticide in 2006. At that time the Government decided not to implement the changes we recommended.

Problem (Back to top)

In the almost 20 years since we last looked at homicide, the existing problems we identified with the way the homicide offences work have remained largely unchanged. In our 2006 report we described the law governing homicide as a “rickety structure set upon shaky foundations. Some of its rules have remained unaltered since the seventeenth century, even though it has long been acknowledged that they are in dire need of reform. Other rules are of uncertain content, often because they have been constantly changed to the point that they can no longer be stated with any certainty or clarity.” (paragraph 1.8 of Murder, Manslaughter and Infanticide)

As society and the law has moved on, new problems and possible limitations with the existing law have emerged. These include the operation of the law of joint enterprise and how diminished responsibility should be reflected in any new classification of homicide offences. Other issues include the extent to which the law reflects a modern understanding of the effects of domestic abuse, for example in how defences to homicide operate where a victim of abuse kills their abuser, or criminal culpability where a victim of abuse dies by suicide following this abuse.

The Commission is therefore pleased that the Ministry of Justice has asked us to revisit homicide law. We have agreed to reconsider and update our 2006 recommendations, to consider defences and partial defences to murder, especially now that the 2009 reforms have had time to bed down, and to conduct a complete review of the sentencing framework for murder.

Defences to murder for victims of abuse who kill their abusers

In 2024 we started work on a project reviewing the defences to homicide for victims of abuse who kill their abusers. This full review of homicide law will allow us to consider this issue holistically, moving beyond defences to consider the homicide offences themselves and sentencing for this group of defendants. We will continue our work on defences for victims of abuse who kill their abusers within the umbrella of this homicide project.

The sentencing framework for murder

The sentencing framework for murder is distinct within the wider sentencing framework. Murder is the only offence which carries a mandatory life sentence, and it is the only offence for which the sentencing framework is in legislation under the remit of Parliament, and not in sentencing guidelines under the remit of the independent Sentencing Council. The judge’s role following a conviction for murder is to set the minimum term an offender must serve before they can be considered for release.

The legislative framework for the determination of the minimum term is primarily contained within Schedule 21 to the Sentencing Code. This was first introduced in the Criminal Justice Act 2003, over 20 years ago. Multiple, piecemeal amendments have been made to the framework since then, and it has never been subject to wholesale review. This now contrasts with the Sentencing Council’s sentencing guidelines, which are regularly reviewed and updated with any changes being subject to thorough consultation.

Recent concerns particularly relate to gendered disparities for murders committed in a domestic context. These concerns include the inadequate reflection of prior abuse in minimum terms for abusive men who kill their female victims, and disproportionately long tariffs for women who kill their male abusers. Concerns have also been raised regarding the introduction in 2010 of an additional starting point of 25 years, particularly with respect to how this has influenced the perceived level of seriousness assigned by the framework to murders committed within the home.

The intention of this review is a complete reconsideration of the sentencing framework for murder, with a view to making recommendations for a new Schedule 21 to the Sentencing Code.

This will be considered in the sentencing strand of the project, in which we are currently expected to publish a consultation paper in Summer 2027.

The Sentencing Council

The Sentencing Council for England and Wales is an independent, non-departmental public body which was set up in 2010 to promote greater consistency in sentencing, whilst maintaining the independence of the judiciary. The Council produces guidelines on sentencing for the judiciary and criminal justice professionals and aims to increase public understanding of sentencing.

As our Terms of Reference make clear, this review will not make recommendations for change to sentencing guidelines, which are the preserve of the Sentencing Council. However, we recognise that any recommendations we make may have consequences for the relevant sentencing guidelines.

We intend to work closely with the Sentencing Council, as agreed between the Commission and the Chairman of the Sentencing Council.

Exclusions

This review is focused on problems with the existing law relating to homicide – largely the “core” offences of murder, manslaughter and infanticide, defences and the sentencing framework for murder. As the Terms of Reference make clear, we have agreed with the Ministry of Justice that some issues are not appropriate for the review and should be explicitly excluded.

The following was included in the Terms of Reference for the 2006 review:

The review will only consider the areas of euthanasia and suicide inasmuch as they form part of the law of murder, not the more fundamental issues involved which would need separate debate. For the same reason abortion will not be part of the review.

The operation of homicide offences is inevitably relevant to the voluntary termination of life and assisted dying. However, these are matters of grave public policy and will not be dealt with in this review, except so far as necessary to recommend coherent homicide law reform.

Nor will the review consider offences relating to the causing of harm to a fetus.

Call for evidence

We published a Call for Evidence in August 2025. This document outlined the recommendations in our report on murder, manslaughter and infanticide in 2006, and commentary on and developments in the law since then. We set out the scope of the new project and invited evidence from stakeholders on the range of issues that we may consider within the project.

We used the evidence from these responses, alongside other pre-consultation stakeholder engagement and research, to develop the provisional proposals for reform contained in the consultation paper on homicide offences.

Next steps (Back to top)

Our public consultation on the homicide offences runs from 17 June 2026 to 30 September 2026. During this period, we will host a number of event and meetings and invite written responses to our consultation paper.

After the public consultation closes, we will begin to analyse consultees’ responses to our provisional proposals and undertake research on the issues falling under the two other strands of the homicide review (respectively, defences and sentencing framework for murder). We will then publish an additional consultation paper with provisional proposals for reform of these issues. We will use the responses to the public consultations to formulate our final recommendations to the Government.

We anticipate the timeline for the project to be as follows:

August 2025: Call for Evidence published.

Summer 2026: publication of a consultation paper focusing on homicide offences, followed by public consultation.
Summer 2027: publication of a consultation paper focusing on defences to homicide and sentencing for murder, followed by public consultation.
2028: publication of the final report on offences, defences and sentencing for murder.