The Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council provides independent research and advice, seeks public views and promotes community understanding of sentencing matters.

The Council provides the following services:

Advice to the Attorney-General about sentencing in Queensland, if asked

Since November 2016, the Attorney-General has sought advice on the following topics:

• Classification of child exploitation material for sentencing purposes
• Sentencing for child homicide offences
• Intermediate sentencing options and parole
• Penalties for assaults on public officers
• Serious violent offences scheme review

Advice to the Court of Appeal about the giving or reviewing of a guideline judgment, if asked

Under the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992 the Court of Appeal has the power to give or review a guideline judgment.

If the Court requests, the Council can provide its views to the Court of Appeal if it decides to exercise this power.

To date, the Court of Appeal has not issued any guideline judgments.

Information for the community about sentencing

You can read information about sentencing, written in plain English, on this website.

Judge for Yourself is an online courtroom and that features four cases based on real-life events. The cases, which represent the work of the Magistrates, District, Supreme and Childrens Court in Queensland, give participants a chance to hear the facts of a genuine court case and pass sentence on the offender.

We provide free, facilitated Judge for Yourself sessions to Queensland students and community groups within a two-hour drive of Brisbane.

We have developed a series of downloadable teaching resources for senior legal studies teachers to use when delivering the curriculum about sentencing. These include workbooks to guide teachers through running a Judge for Yourself session with their class.

Every year, we update the Queensland Sentencing Guide to explain the sentencing process for adults in Queensland. In 2021, we also released our Guide to the sentencing of children in Queensland.

We publish information about Queensland sentencing practices, outcomes and general sentencing trends on our Sentencing Trends webpage. On this page, you can use interactive graphs to explore sentencing trends in detail, including trends for Queensland courts, adult offenders and young offenders.

The Case in Focus series summarises points of law and sentencing principles discussed in specific decisions by the Court of Appeal.

The Court reporting guide for journalists outlines best practice for journalists when reporting on court matters and sentencing.

Research and publications about sentencing matters

Our Sentencing Spotlight series provides statistical information about sentencing for different offences in Queensland.

Our Sentencing Profiles series explores sentencing trends and patterns for specific groups of people in Queensland – the general population, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, children, and women and girls.

Periodically, we also compile a single-pager about sentencing for topical offences – Sentencing @ a glance – to give a snapshot of key sentencing statistics.

A summary of our annual financial information is published as part of our Annual Report. More detail about our financial position can be found in the Department of Justice and Attorney-General Annual Report.

Our Strategic plan sets out our strategic goals, key activities for achieving our goals, and key performance targets.

The Chair of the Council presides over monthly meetings where each member of the Council has a vote on each question to be decided at the meeting. If the Chair is not available to attend the meeting, it is convened by the Deputy Chair, or if neither are available, by a member of the Council chosen by the members present.

All questions are decided by a majority of members present at the meeting, and if there is an equal number of votes at a meeting, the meeting convenor will case a deciding vote. Members may abstain from voting.

Meetings are minuted, and Council decisions recorded.

We have a number of rules, policies and guidelines that govern the way we work:

• Code of Conduct (PDF, 456.6 KB)
• Privacy Policy (PDF, 145.7 KB)
• Complaint Management Policy (PDF, 282.5 KB)
• Public Interest Disclosure Policy (PDF, 410.1 KB)
• Stakeholder Engagement Framework (PDF, 19.3 MB)

There are no available documents for this category. If documents become available, they will be added here. We review our publication scheme annually.

You have the right to lodge a complaint if information in our publication scheme is not available.

We will manage complaints in accordance with our Complaint Management Policy. This policy also allows for anonymous complaints.

Any personal information you provide when making a complaint, including email addresses, will be collected for addressing your complaint about the publication scheme. This is in accordance with the Ministerial Guidelines under the Right to Information Act 2009.

Our disclosure log is managed by the Department of Justice and Attorney-General (DJAG).

A disclosure log provides information that has been released in response to applications made under the RTI Act for records held by the Council.

Search DJAG’s disclosure log for published information.