Member

Secondly, there is recognition across the House and the criminal justice system generally that pre-sentence reports are a vital tool in achieving fairer and more effective sentencing by our criminal courts. We need to return to the position that such reports are always made available to judges, at least whenever a sentencing decision involves a genuine choice between a custodial and a community sentence. Furthermore, the quality of such reports needs to be improved so that they are thorough and well researched, and the cadre of highly qualified and committed probation officers preparing them are permitted the time and resource they need to ensure that they can produce thorough reports that will be as helpful as they can be to sentencing courts.