Memorandum submitted by the Probation
Chiefs' Association
JUSTICE REINVESTMENT
COMMITTEE SUPPLEMENTARY
QUESTION—RESPONSE
1. There are facilities for magistrates
to ask for progress reports on specific cases—the Crown
Courts have had this option for many years. The Ministry encouraged
that the practice should spread to the lower courts several years
back.
There are no statistics I know of on how often this
is taken up but, as with court reviews, it does have the advantage
of concentrating the offender's mind and probably that of the
offender manager, too. While this is undoubtedly a useful facility,
there may have been some reluctance about publicising this too
widely for logistical reasons—resources would not permit
this to be done in more than a few selected cases, often where
the defendant has been on the cusp of custody.
The above PCA response is in answer to Q452 Alun
Michael: Sentencers do not sentence statistics; they sentence
people before them, so why do you not as a matter of course make
sure every sentencer gets a report on what happens to each person
they have sentenced?
John Crawforth
Portfolio Lead, Sentencing
2 February 2009
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