Discounting Committee

Remit and terms of reference

The Discounting Working Group Committee will support the Council in its preparation of a sentencing guideline on the application of section 196 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, which requires courts, when sentencing, to take into account a plea of guilty if tendered. 

The Committee will oversee all aspects of the development of the guideline until submission to the High Court and will give consideration thereafter to ongoing monitoring of the guideline. In terms of the Council’s standing orders the Council will specify the expected lifetime of the committee. This may be reviewed and, if appropriate, amended by the Council during the committee’s lifetime. The Committee’s work will include, in particular: 

    • making recommendations to the Council as to the scope, content, and approach of the guideline
    • identifying knowledge and information gaps relevant to the development of the guideline, submitting any proposals for research to the Research Committee
    • reviewing draft guidelines prepared by the secretariat, providing advice and direction as required while having regard to any guideline methodology and           drafting style agreed by the Council
    • supporting engagement with relevant stakeholders at all stages of the guideline development process
    • overseeing the judicial and public consultation process, including the preparation of consultation documents and impact assessments

The Committee will report regularly to the Council on the progress of guideline development, making recommendations and, where appropriate, referring significant or potentially controversial decisions to the Council.

Current Members

The Hon. Lord Colbeck

Judicial member

Lord Colbeck will hold office until July 2025.

A graduate of the University of Strathclyde, Lord Colbeck was admitted as a solicitor in 1988, working for A.C. White in Ayr and Levy & McRae in Glasgow before joining MacRoberts in 1993. He became a partner there in 1997, specialising in commercial and construction disputes and health and safety and environmental prosecutions, and served as the managing partner from 2011 to 2014. Following his appointment as a part-time sheriff in 2011 and then a full-time sheriff in 2014, he was appointed as the Sheriff Principal of Glasgow and Strathkelvin in 2016. Lord Colbeck was appointed as a judge in the Supreme Courts in May 2023.

Sheriff Iain Fleming

Sheriff member

Sheriff Fleming will hold office until March 2026.

Sheriff Iain Fleming was appointed as a part time sheriff in 2005 and as a full time sheriff in 2014, following a career as a solicitor and solicitor advocate. He served in the Sheriffdom of North Strathclyde at Greenock Sheriff Court until 2017, and since then has sat in Glasgow Sheriff Court, conducting courts at summary and solemn level. As part of his duties in Glasgow he has presided at the problem-solving Alcohol Court since February 2018. He has also been a shrieval member of the Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland since 2011.

Dr Hannah Graham

Lay member

Dr Hannah Graham will hold office until December 2024.

Dr Hannah Graham is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research (SCCJR) at the University of Stirling. Dr Graham has previously worked as a criminologist at the University of Tasmania, Australia. Throughout her career as a criminologist, she has conducted research and worked with a range of people and agencies, including police, procurators fiscal, judiciary, lawyers, court staff, prison staff, justice social work and community justice, charities, people with lived experience of the criminal justice system, and justice policymakers. Dr Graham is the author or editor of four books, published internationally, on rehabilitation, criminal justice work, and innovative approaches to justice. She is an Editor of the European Journal of Probation, and a member of the Community Sanctions and Measures Working Group in the European Society of Criminology. Dr Graham is a member of the national Council for the Scottish Association for the Study of Offending (SASO). In 2017-2018, Dr Graham was part of a team of researchers to conduct an independent review of the Aberdeen Problem Solving Approach, in collaboration with Aberdeen Sheriff Court and community justice partners. This approach specialises in working with people with complex needs and prolific offence histories to offer rehabilitative opportunities and address the underlying causes of their offending. In 2007, she conducted an independent evaluation of a mental health court diversion initiative for the Magistrates Court and Forensic Mental Health Services in Tasmania, Australia.