From the Home Office: applications for the newly-formed Sentencing Guidelines Council are invited from suitably qualified Circuit Judges and Magistrates and from those with substantial current experience of policing, criminal defence or the interests of victims of crime.

The council - established by the Criminal Justice Act 2003 - will play a key role in developing sentencing guidelines and influencing the whole range of sentencing decisions.

The council will develop a comprehensive body of guidelines and publish the guidelines in a way that is readily accessible by the judiciary, practitioners and the wider public.

It will commission advice from the sentencing advisory panel, formulate draft guidelines for consideration by Parliament and the Home Secretary and then make definitive guidelines to which each sentencing court will be required to have regard.

Chaired by the Lord Chief Justice, the council will have seven other judicial members and four non-judicial members.

It will be expected to command the highest respect from the whole of the judiciary, practitioners and the wider public.

The council will be an advisory non-departmental public body.

For further information on the Sentencing Guidelines Council, contact Kevin McCormac, tel: 020 7035 5156; or write to: room G13, Allington Towers, Allington Street, London SW1E 5EB; or e-mail: Kevin.McCormac@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk.

The closing date for applications is 5 January 2004.