Sentencing Council's annual report records guidelines progress
Progress on its first guidelines projects is recorded in the Scottish Sentencing Council’s third annual report, now laid before the Scottish Parliament.
Throughout 2017-18 the Council continued its work to develop Scotland’s first sentencing guidelines. A public consultation on the draft Principles and Purposes of Sentencing guideline was held, which attracted responses from a wide variety of individuals and organisations. It is hoped that the guideline will be put to the High Court for approval before the end of 2018.
The report also claims good progress was made in developing a guideline setting out the sentencing process, with a public consultation expected to take place in 2019. Work has commenced on developing guidelines on the sentencing of young people, causing death by driving and environmental and wildlife offences.
Looking to the future, the Council started to consider potential topics to include in the work programme for its next business plan covering the period 2018-21. This is due to be published in October this year.
Writing in the foreword, the Lord Justice Clerk, Lady Dorrian, who chairs the Council, comments: "Reflecting our commitment to work openly and collaboratively, we have engaged extensively with stakeholders, academics, and other interested parties throughout the year to discuss our work and seek views on our approach. We also held our first stakeholder conference, on the topic of sentencing young people. This event enabled us to discuss the issues and challenges inherent in sentencing young people with a range of organisations from across the criminal justice system and beyond. The information gathered is now being used to inform the development of a guideline and to assist in identifying areas for further research.
"Our work in promoting awareness and understanding of sentencing continues, with a particular focus on the development of the Council’s website as a comprehensive sentencing resource. The website now contains a series of animated videos aimed at explaining sentencing to a variety of audiences, interactive case studies allowing visitors to explore the factors judges may take into account when sentencing, and a 'mythbuster' which addresses common sentencing misconceptions."
The Council's expenditure for the year totalled £380,126.