Significant progress on rape sentencing guidelines highlighted in Council's Annual Report 2024-25
The Scottish Sentencing Council has made significant progress towards the finalisation of sentencing guidelines on rape offences, according to its Annual Report 2024-25, which has been published today.
Commenting on the report, Council Chair, Lord Beckett, the Lord Justice Clerk, said: "In 2024-25, we held a public consultation on draft sentencing guidelines on rape offences, a crucial stage in their development. Public consultations constitute a vital part of the evidence on which our guidelines are based. Our guidelines must be fit for purpose for all their users, including courts, court users, and the general public. The public consultation enabled us to get a wide range of views from organisations and individuals, helping us to reach key decisions about the final content of the guidelines.
"Rape offences are an area of great public concern and account for a significant proportion of sentencing in the High Court. Sentencing guidelines on these offences will assist courts and promote greater consistency and predictability. They will also provide clarity for victims."
Lord Beckett continued: "We made advances in other areas of our work this year, including progress on guidelines on domestic abuse and sentencing following a guilty plea, while I am pleased to note that we resumed work on guidelines covering environmental and wildlife crimes.
“We also made a major contribution towards policy development by carrying out extensive research and engagement on the sentencing of people with mental health conditions and related issues. This resulted in two important publications: an issues paper exploring the views and experiences of members of the judiciary, and a report summarising discussions at a stakeholder conference we held in August 2024. This work expanded understanding of the challenges involved in this area and we hope it will assist stakeholders in both the health and justice sectors in efforts to improve service provision and delivery.
"Throughout the year, we continued to promote awareness and understanding of sentencing by publishing a range of accessible educational materials and important research on public attitudes and the views of victims towards sentencing."
A wide range of other key achievements and activities during 2024-25 are highlighted in the annual report, including:
- publication of the Council’s fourth business plan, setting out an ambitious programme of work for the period 2024-27, with new guidelines on sentencing people with mental health conditions and related issues, and on assault offences, and a second national survey into public perceptions of sentencing
- a new communications and engagement strategy for 2024-27, which focuses in particular on raising awareness of sexual offences and gender-based violence, sentencing practice, and mental health and sentencing
- a new video on prison sentencing featuring people who have knowledge of the prison system from a variety of perspectives, including a judge, a senior manager in the Scottish Prison Service, a victims expert, an academic, and a person currently serving a prison sentence
- the launch of a podcast called Scottish Sentencing Conversations with episodes on community sentences and prison sentences
- publication of comprehensive information packs for the public and the media providing clear explanations of the sentencing process and the different types of sentences available to courts
- a new interactive case study on death by dangerous driving, offering people the chance to play the role of a judge in the case of a motorist who has been charged with causing death by dangerous driving
- important research reports exploring the views of victims on sentencing rape and other sexual offences and on domestic abuse sentencing, signalling the Council’s ongoing commitment to seek to understand the impact of crime on victims
- publication of literature reviews on stalking and firearms offences and a public attitudes report on sentencing following a guilty plea
- the completion, or near completion, of several research projects: focus groups exploring views on the sentencing of environmental and wildlife crimes; an exploratory study on unwarranted disparities in sentencing in Scotland; and a literature review on modern slavery offences
- in-house data gathering and analysis to inform the development and review of guidelines, resulting in draft impact assessments on the rape guidelines (rape offences and rape of a young child), providing extensive information on sentencing of these offences, and a report on the routine one-year review of the sentencing young people guideline
- general awareness raising activities and public engagement with presentations at a range of educational institutions and Doors Open Days in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Read the 2024-25 Annual Report here.
Read the Council’s publications on the sentencing of people with mental health conditions and related issues here: