Armed Forces Act 2006

253 Duties in complying with section 252

(1) In complying with section 252(1)(a) an officer or the Summary Appeal Court must—

(a) mention any aggravating or mitigating factors which he (or it) has regarded as being of particular importance;

(b) if section 239 (guilty pleas) applies and as a result of taking into account a matter mentioned in section 239(2) the officer or court has imposed a punishment on the offender which is less severe than the punishment that would otherwise have been imposed, state that fact;

(c) where the sentence is one of service detention, state that he (or it) is of the opinion mentioned in section 242(4) and why; and

(d) where the sentence is one of forfeiture of seniority, reduction in rank or disrating, state that he (or it) is of the opinion mentioned in section 248(4) and why.

(2) In complying with section 252(1)(a) a court other than the Summary Appeal Court must—

(a) where guidelines indicate that a sentence of a particular kind, or within a particular range, would normally be appropriate for the offence and the sentence is of a different kind or is outside that range, state the court’s reasons for deciding on a sentence of a different kind or outside that range;

(b) mention any aggravating or mitigating factors which the court has regarded as being of particular importance;

(c) if section 239 (guilty pleas) applies and as a result of taking into account a matter mentioned in section 239(2) the court has imposed a punishment on the offender which is less severe than the punishment it would otherwise have imposed, state that fact;

(d) where the sentence is a custodial sentence and section 260 applies (and the case does not fall within section 260(3)), state that it is of the opinion mentioned in section 260(2) and why;

(e) where the sentence is one of dismissal or dismissal with disgrace, state that it is of the opinion mentioned in section 265(1) and why;

(f) where the sentence is one of service detention, state that it is of the opinion mentioned in section 242(1) and why;

(g) where the sentence is one of forfeiture of seniority, reduction in rank or disrating, state that it is of the opinion mentioned in section 248(1) and why; and

(h) where the sentence consists of or includes a community punishment (and the case does not fall within section 151(2) of the 2003 Act as applied by section 270 of this Act), state that it is of the opinion mentioned in section 270(1) and why.

(3) In this section “guidelines” has the same meaning as in section 259.