Source · Select Committees · Justice Committee
Recommendation 10
10
Deferred
Paragraph: 76
Pre-sentence reports have substantially declined, lacking clear action to increase their use.
Conclusion
Pre-sentence reports (PSRs) provide the opportunity for a more personalised response to offending in order to support effective sentencing. We are concerned to see that the number of reports has declined substantially over the last 10 years. We welcome the work that the Ministry of Justice is doing to improve the quality of PSRs; however, it is less clear what work is being done to increase their use. The Ministry of Justice should evaluate why the number of pre-sentence reports has declined in recent years, and what work is being done to increase the use of pre-sentence reports.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government announced £24 million over 3 years to support women in the criminal justice system through women's community sector investment and service integration, but did not specifically address the decline in pre-sentence reports or how it plans to increase their use.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
76
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government · verbatim extract
Deferred
We accept this recommendation. As highlighted in the Sentencing White Paper published in September 2020, the MoJ launched the pre-sentence report (PSR) pilot last year in response to the significant decrease in PSRs being requested by the judiciary. The pilot is testing an Alternative Delivery Model which has been designed to improve the quality of information presented to court at each of the pilot sites and test whether elements of the Alternative Delivery Model lead to an increase in PSRs. An evaluation report will be published in 2023.
Read the full response on Parliament ↗