Council plays host
The Council hosted visiting colleagues from England & Wales and Australia & Tasmania at its recent meeting - hearing about different ways to develop an effective work programme at an early stage.
Lord Justice Treacy, Chair of the Sentencing Council for England and Wales, and Professor Arie Freiberg, Chair of both the Victorian and the Tasmanian sentencing advisory councils, attended the Council’s third meeting.
The visitors spoke about the importance of:
- providing public information on sentencing to promote transparency and understanding
- ensuring guidelines are presented in an accessible format for stakeholders and the public as well as being of practical use to judges and practitioners
- making best use of digital technology wherever possible.
Lord Justice Treacy also discussed the benefit to the Sentencing Council for England & Wales of the significant momentum provided by the previous work of its predecessors - the Sentencing Advisory Panel, and the Sentencing Guidelines Council - and advised members to be prepared to take the time required to develop guidelines properly.
“It is extremely beneficial to share ideas with colleagues in other jurisdictions, especially in the early stages of our development in Scotland,” says Council Chair, Lady Dorrian, the Lord Justice Clerk.
“We appreciated the time our colleagues took to speak with us. These visits were an excellent opportunity to learn more about other sentencing bodies and ask questions on what was effective for them as they established their work programmes.
“Of course our approach will be tailored to meet the needs of the Scottish justice system, but exploring the different options is a vital part of our early work.”
The draft meeting minutes are now available.