Achieving our strategic objectives

Action

Provisional timing stated in the Council’s strategy document

Progress to date

Support consistent and transparent sentencing by continuing to produce and revise guidelines in accordance with published criteria. Specific guidelines produced or revised will be a result of the Council’s annual discussions on priorities and will be included in annual business plans.

Ongoing

Ongoing

Ensure that all relevant issues are taken into account when considering guidelines for development or evaluation by reviewing and updating our guideline development/revision criteria

Completed; published in August 2021

Completed and published.

Review the Totality guideline in the light of research findings and make any necessary changes.

Consult on draft guideline by October 2022

Completed. Consultation published in October 2022 and revised guideline came into force on 1 July 2023. This drew on research published in September 2021.

Ensure that we draw fully on all relevant perspectives by formally considering at the outset of each guideline project whether to bring in additional external expertise to support a guideline’s development.

Ongoing from June 2021

Ongoing: since issuing the strategy document in November 2021, we have engaged with a number of relevant stakeholders as part of the development of guidelines.

Ensure guidelines remain relevant and up to date by undertaking an annual consultation on cross-cutting and/or minor revisions to guidelines.

Consultation to be issued annually from September 2021

Ongoing. Completed for 2023 and published on 18 March 2024. Consideration of the 2024 amendments has begun.

Ensure minor uncontentious amendments to guidelines, that do not require consultation, are clear and transparent to all users by publishing a log of these.

Published as changes are made

Ongoing. The log is being updated as necessary and published regularly.

Enable users to feedback on guidelines by providing a mechanism to report errors or difficulties.

Completed; feedback function available from September 2021

Action

Provisional timing stated in the Council’s strategy document

Progress to date

Support the development and evaluation of guidelines by continuing to access and analyse sentencing data – including on impacts and resources – and ensure this is understood and informs Council decision-making.

Ongoing

Ongoing. We conducted another data collection in courts in 2023 and are continuing to explore further ways to access more relevant and robust data.

Provide evidence and analysis to support the Council’s work across all of its statutory duties.

Ongoing

Ongoing.

Finalise approach as to how we might access a greater volume of data via the Common Platform and explore whether this might bring about efficiencies in the way in which we currently collect data from the courts.

By September 2022

Ongoing. The work to establish how we may collect a greater volume of data is in progress.  

Consider whether enhancements can be made to the way in which we measure and interpret the impact of our guidelines and our approaches to resource assessments by undertaking a review of our current practice.

By June 2022

Ongoing. An initial review of data sources was previously undertaken and we issued an Invitation to Tender (ITT) for a small piece of academic work to support this in 2021. We unfortunately did not receive any bids for the work and so are continuing to consider refinements to our approach internally. We are also taking opportunities to link in with academics to discuss general issues around data improvement.

Explore how the Council’s expanded explanations are being interpreted and applied by sentencers in practice by undertaking an evaluation of these.

Start by March 2022

Completed. A research report reviewing use of selected guideline factors and their associated expanded explanations was published on 6 March 2024.

Inform development of the Totality guideline by undertaking a small research study with sentencers.

Completed; published in September 2021

Completed. Published on 28 September 2021.

Explore the impact and implementation of the intimidatory offences guidelines by undertaking an evaluation

Start by March 2022

Ongoing. Internal work on this is progressing and we plan to publish a report by the end of 2024.

Explore the impact and implementation of the domestic abuse overarching guideline by undertaking an evaluation

Start by March 2022

Ongoing. We have commissioned external academics to undertake a review of this guideline. The report from this review should be published in the autumn of 2024.

Ensure the views of all relevant parties are fully considered in the development and revision of guidelines by considering, on a case-by-case basis, whether additional specific qualitative research is required.

Ongoing from June 2021

Ongoing. The social research team continue to undertake qualitative research with sentencers, and our evaluation of the Breach guideline has also drawn on the views of probation officers.

Collate the relevant evidence on issues related to effectiveness of sentencing and consider this as part of work to develop and revise guidelines by undertaking and publishing a review of the relevant evidence.

Biennially from September 2022

Ongoing. We published a literature review in this area in September 2022. This has fed into guideline development, including the Imposition of community and custodial sentences guideline, which consulted on a proposed new section on Purposes and effectiveness of sentencing between November 2023 and February 2024.  We have now commissioned a second literature review which will be published by September 2024.

Consider what further work in the area of consistency of sentencing is needed by reviewing the updated evidence in this area.

By September 2022

Ongoing. We are currently considering what more can be done in this area.

Consider how best to make use of local area data in our work by undertaking a review of options.

By March 2022

Ongoing. An initial review has been undertaken and a note on the Council’s decision on this area has been published on our website. As part of ongoing work to review the strategy we will consider this further.

Permit access to data collected by the Council by preparing and publishing our drugs data collection.

By June 2022

Completed. This was published in July 2022.

Permit access to data collected by the Council by preparing and publishing our robbery offences data collection.

By September 2022

Completed. This was published in October 2023.

Continue to broaden the range of analytical work we can contribute to and draw on by seeking opportunities to collaborate with academics and external organisations.

Ongoing from June 2021

Ongoing. We have commissioned external academics and organisations to undertake work on equality and diversity, public confidence, effectiveness in sentencing, and our review of the guideline on domestic abuse. We continue to endorse academic work for funding where relevant. We held a one day seminar in January 2023 in conjunction with the Sentencing Academy and City Law School where a number of academics presented work, and we continue to attend and contribute to relevant events (e.g. an academic symposium on sentencing disparities in March 2023 and The Inaugural Scottish Sentencing Research Symposium held by the Scottish Sentencing Council in November 2023).  

Action

Provisional timing stated in the Council’s strategy document

Progress to date

Explore the potential impact of sentencing guidelines on different demographic groups and groups with protected characteristics by collecting, analysing and publishing data, where this is available, and undertaking more in-depth analytical work.

Ongoing from December 2020

Ongoing. We now routinely publish sentencing breakdowns by age, sex and ethnicity alongside guidelines and consultations and are exploring what more we can do in this area in the future (e.g. we collected case identifiers in our most recent data collection to enable us to link to data on ethnicity, and are exploring more widely what might be available via linking our data to other datasets). We also ask sentencers about this area as part of our research exercises and questions are included in all our guideline consultation documents.

Draw attention to any relevant issues relating to disparities in sentencing by providing tailored references to relevant information, to the Equal Treatment Bench Book, and to the need to apply guidelines fairly across all groups of offenders after reviewing evidence on disparity in sentencing for each guideline being developed or revised.

Ongoing from December 2020

Ongoing. The relevant data is considered for all guidelines and we have built into our workplan the need to review data and any tailored references at regular intervals. The content and position of the equality and diversity section in consultation documents is kept under review with the emphasis on exploring consultees’ views on these matters within each draft guideline. We also include specific questions on equality and diversity in all of our research with sentencers when developing and evaluating guidelines.

Explore the potential for the Council’s work inadvertently to cause disparity in sentencing across demographic groups by commissioning independent external contractors to undertake a project to review a sample of key guidelines and processes.

By December 2021

Completed. A report on this work, alongside a response from the Council, was published in January 2023. The Council are actioning/have actioned the relevant recommendations.

Ensure any evidence of disparity in sentencing between different demographic groups is taken into account when deciding whether to develop or review a guideline by including this as a consideration in the Council’s criteria for developing and revising guidelines.

Completed; published August 2021

Completed. Text has been added to the Council’s updated criteria.

Consider whether separate guidance is needed for female offenders or young adults by conducting an evaluation of the relevant expanded explanations and, if so, add this to our workplan.

To be considered as part of the evaluation of expanded explanations

Completed. The evaluation of the expanded explanations has led to changes being made to mitigating factors and their associated expanded explanations which came into effect on 1 April 2024. The Council has also recently consulted on changes to the Imposition of community and custodial sentences guideline which includes giving more guidance on the sentencing of female offenders and young adults. The issue of the need for separate guidance will be revisited once the revised Imposition guideline has been published.

Action

Provisional timing stated in the Council’s strategy document

Progress to date

Ensure the Council continues to be informed on issues related to effectiveness of sentencing by publishing a research review of the relevant evidence.

Biennially from September 2022

Ongoing. We published a literature review in this area in September 2022. We have now commissioned a second review which will be published by September 2024.

Consider the possibility of future work with offenders to understand which elements of their sentence may have influenced their rehabilitation by undertaking a scoping exercise in this area.

By September 2022

Ongoing. We have started preliminary work to consider if, and what, the Council might do in this area. As an informal ‘pilot’ for engaging with offenders, in the consultation for the Imposition of community and custodial sentences guideline, for the first time we included direct reference to those with “lived experience of the criminal justice system” at the beginning of the document when describing who it is aimed at, as well as in the Equalities section, and have directly engaged with organisations representing those with lived experience throughout the project period.

Consider whether any changes are required to highlight to sentencers the need to consider issues relating to effectiveness of sentencing as a result of research work in this area and any work undertaken on the Imposition guideline.

From September 2022

Ongoing. A review of trend analysis of the Imposition of community and custodial sentences guideline was published in March 2023 which was considered as part of the policy review of the Imposition guideline. A revised Imposition guideline, including a new proposed section on Purposes and effectiveness of sentencing, was consulted on between November 2023 and February 2024. The Council is now considering responses to this consultation.

Action

Provisional timing stated in the Council’s strategy document

Progress to date

Ensure sentencers and other practitioners have easy and immediate access to sentencing guidelines by continuing to develop digital tools that meet their needs.

Ongoing

Ongoing. We continue to make improvements to the website and sentencing tools in response to direct feedback from users. We have also made improvements to the website and iPad app following research we undertook and commissioned to explore how sentencers access, navigate, and use the guidelines on the Council’s website, and further improvements will be made this year. The ‘user testing’ research reports were published in November 2023.

Inform public audiences, including victims, witnesses and offenders, about sentencing and sentencing guidelines by continuing to develop content for our website and seek media coverage relating to key Council activities.

Ongoing

Ongoing. We have revised our communication strategy to reflect the five strategic objectives, the outcomes of the equality and diversity and public confidence research, and findings of the Justice Committee’s research, Public opinion and understanding of sentencing. We continue to publicise guideline and consultation launches, making best use of all available channels to reach our intended audiences, and use our account on X (formerly Twitter) to drive people to our website.

Support the effective development of guidelines by continuing to promote Council consultations to practitioners who use the guidelines and individuals and groups who could potentially be affected by the guidelines.

Ongoing

Ongoing, as consultations are launched.

Elicit a broader and more representative body of consultation responses to inform the development of guidelines by undertaking a review of our target audiences and how we reach them.

Ongoing

Ongoing. Work commissioned by the Equality and Diversity working group to extend our field of potential consultees and the ways in which they can contribute is ongoing. We have reviewed our use of the online consultation platform Citizen Space to improve the user experience for consultees. For the Imposition of community and custodial sentences guideline consultation, for the first time we included direct reference to those with “lived experience of the criminal justice system” at the beginning of the consultation document when describing who the consultation is aimed at, as well as in the Equalities section, and have directly engaged with organisations representing those with lived experience throughout the consultation period.

Teach young people about sentencing by developing sentencing-related materials for use by organisations such as Young Citizens who already engage extensively with schools.

Ongoing

Ongoing. Working in collaboration with Young Citizens and Judicial Office, we have developed content for Key Stage 1 and 2 (primary) teaching resource, ‘What happens when laws are broken?’ The resource supports Citizenship and PHSE (Personal, Health, Social and Economic education). We also continue to provide content for Young Citizens’ national mock trial competitions. Our work on developing the online sentencing tool You be the Judge has completed and we launched this on 10 July 2024. You be the Judge is designed to engage audiences of all ages but will be of particular value as a teaching tool.

Improve our ability to inform the public about sentencing by identifying relevant organisations willing to help us engage with their stakeholders.

Ongoing

Ongoing.

Make our consultations more easily accessible to the Council’s public audiences by developing a template for more simplified introductions to consultation documents and embedding this within the Council’s processes.

Completed May 2021

Completed. All consultations are now accompanied on our website with introductory material written specifically for public audiences.

Illustrate for our audiences the range of issues considered by the Council when developing and revising guidelines and the extent to which guidelines are influenced by consultation responses, by publishing information about the Council’s processes and procedures on our website.

By March 2022

Completed. The content has been developed and has been published on the website.

Maintain an up-to-date insight into public confidence in the criminal justice system and its drivers, and explore whether there have been any changes over time, by re-running our previous survey questions and comparing findings to our previous research.

By September 2022

Completed. We commissioned an external survey company to undertake this work and a report was published in December 2022. We considered recommendations in the Justice Committee’s report on public opinion and understanding of sentencing that are relevant to the work of the Council, publishing our response on 18 January 2024.