The Ministry of Justice has extended the ‘special procedures’ regime for community and suspended sentence orders to 31 March 2029. According to the instrument published on legislation.gov.uk, the Sentencing Act 2020 (Special Procedures for Community and Suspended Sentence Orders) (Amendment) Regulations 2025 (SI 2025/1207) were made on 18 November 2025, laid before Parliament on 20 November 2025, and come into force on 13 December 2025 (regulations 1 and 3) and 25 December 2025 (regulation 2). The instrument applies in England and Wales and is issued under section 395A of the Sentencing Act 2020.
The 2025 Regulations amend regulation 3 of both the 2023 and 2024 special‑procedures instruments. Instead of a rolling period measured in months from commencement, eligibility now runs from the day each instrument came into force and ends on a fixed date: 31 March 2029. The change is confined to the time limit; it does not alter the designated courts, eligible cohorts or offence exclusions previously set out.
What the scheme does in practice is unchanged. Special procedures enable regular judicial reviews of qualifying community and suspended sentence orders, informed by probation progress reports. Courts may vary certain requirements, adjust review frequency to recognise progress, and-if non‑compliance is found-hold a breach hearing with power to commit to custody for up to 28 days on no more than three occasions during the order. This description reflects the explanatory notes published on legislation.gov.uk.
Coverage remains tied to the pilot courts named in the existing instruments. Under the 2023 Regulations, the eligible courts are Birmingham Magistrates’ Court (women only), Liverpool Crown Court and Teesside Crown Court. The 2024 Regulations designate the Crown Court sitting at Bristol. In all cases, the person must be 18 or over and not subject to the Sexual Offences Act 2003 notification requirements.
Serious sexual offences and most weapons offences are excluded. A narrow exception permits first‑time possession offences relating to knives or bladed articles, at the court’s discretion, where the person has no qualifying previous conviction for the listed weapons offences. These parameters are unchanged by the 2025 instrument.
The timeline is now clearer. The 2023 Regulations took effect on 26 June 2023 and-after a 2024 amendment extending their window to 30 months-would otherwise have ceased to admit new qualifying orders after 25 December 2025. The 2024 Regulations came into force on 14 June 2024 with an 18‑month window to 13 December 2025. The 2025 instrument converts both windows to a single cut‑off of 31 March 2029.
Commencement has been staged to avoid any gap. Regulation 3 (which amends the 2024 scheme) starts on 13 December 2025, the day the 2024 window would otherwise close; regulation 2 (which amends the 2023 scheme) starts on 25 December 2025, aligning with the date the 2023 window would have closed under the 30‑month extension. Orders made on or before 31 March 2029 will qualify provided the other conditions in the 2023 or 2024 instruments are met.
For courts, this means the review‑hearing model continues in the named jurisdictions to at least the end of March 2029. Sentencers and legal advisers should continue to mark qualifying orders as subject to special procedures and list review hearings accordingly, ensuring sentencing remarks and orders record that status for probation and case‑management systems.
For the Probation Service, workload planning for progress reports and review hearings at the four sites should assume continuity through the 2025–2029 period. Breach, variation and incentive decisions should continue to be taken within the powers described in the regulations and supporting material on legislation.gov.uk.
The regulatory footing is unchanged. Section 395A of the Sentencing Act 2020 provides the power to specify descriptions of orders and the period within which they qualify, and places instruments that set such a period under the negative procedure. The 2025 Regulations therefore extend the pilots’ timeframe without altering their substance.