The guilty plea discount: An elaboration on Singapore’s guidelines

Publication Type

Journal Article

Publication

SMU Lexicon, SMU School of Law

Publication Date

9-2025

Abstract

Over the past two decades, a defining feature of Singapore’s sentencing regime has been the creation of structured sentencing methodology, with the aim of ensuring broad consistency and fairness across offenders. The exercise of judicial discretion in sentencing has largely been guided by statutory frameworks and guideline judgments. However, beyond the legislature and judiciary, an inter-agency body named the Sentencing Advisory Panel has also been formed to issue persuasive but non-binding guidelines. This article focuses on the first set of guidelines issued by the Sentencing Advisory Panel in 2023, concerning the sentencing of accused persons who plead guilty. It explains the jurisprudential basis for the contents of the guidelines by examining recent developments in case law and highlights considerations for integrating these guidelines into the pre-existing sentencing regime.

Keywords

sentencing guidelines, guilty plea discount, Singapore law, sentencing methodology, judicial discretion, Sentencing Advisory Panel, statutory frameworks, guideline judgments, criminal law, sentencing consistency

Disciplines

Courts | Criminal Law | Jurisprudence

Subject(s)

Applied or Integration/Application Scholarship

ISSN/ISBN

2737-5048

Publisher

SMU Lexicon, SMU School of Law

Version

publishedVersion

Copyright Holder

Singapore Management University

Format

application/PDF

Volume

5

Page

96-127

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