Inaugural meeting

The Council’s inaugural meeting was held in Parliament House on 14 December when members laid the ground for future work, including an agreement to consult fully on sentencing guidelines.

Members dealt with a number of administrative structures, including Standing Orders and a complaints procedure, and set in motion work to explore whether a definition of the basic principles and purposes of sentencing would be appropriate.

They also agreed to broaden consultation on sentencing guidelines. The Council is obligated to consult others in the justice system, such as Scottish ministers and the Lord Advocate, when preparing guidelines, but members agreed to widen the scope to include the public.

Solicitor Member John Scott said: “The Council wants to go a step beyond its requirement to raise awareness of sentencing practice by encouraging people to engage actively in a consultation process, with the opportunity to have their say in the discussion.

“Sentencing guidelines will inevitably have an impact on the victims, offenders and families involved in criminal cases, as well as the justice system as a whole. From the outset the Council is determined to be a listening body, taking into account a wide scope of views and input.

“This means guidelines will not be rushed into place but prepared after considered consultation, which will include research into their likely effects, cost and benefits.”

The Council’s next step is to decide how to prioritise the preparation of these guidelines. It must determine whether to consider sentences by offence, or by types of offender, or a combination of both. In addition to using its own initiative, it will also take direction from the High Court and Sheriff Appeal Court and consider requests from Scottish ministers.

Prepared guidelines are sent to the High Court for approval and judges must take account of any which are relevant when imposing a sentence, or give reasons for not doing so. The Council covered significant ground at the inaugural meeting with members agreeing:

•          Standing Orders including Rules of Conduct
•          Freedom of Information and records management practice and procedure
•          complaints handling procedure
•          publication of High Court guideline sentences
•          research visits to other UK jurisdictions
•          stronger links with the Judicial Institute for Scotland (responsible for Judicial training).

 @ScotSentencing