Crime and Punishment (Scotland) Act 1997

Prospective

36 Amendments to 1989 Act. S

(1) Section 39 of the 1989 Act (rules for the management of prisons) shall be amended in accordance with this section.

(2) Subsection (7) shall cease to have effect.

(3) After subsection (12), there shall be added the following subsections—

“(13) Rules made under this section may make provision in relation to the assessment mentioned in sections 34 and 35 of the Crime and Punishment (Scotland) Act 1997 and may, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, include provision—

(a) as to the person who is responsible for making any assessment required to be made in relation to any offender to whom either of those sections applies, whether directly or by virtue of section 41 of that Act (application of early release provisions to mentally disordered offenders);

(b) as to the intervals at which assessments are to be made;

(c) in relation to the considerations to which a person prescribed under paragraph (a) above is to have regard in applying the criteria set out in section 34;

(d) as to the manner in which any assessment is to be carried out;

(e) for notification of any determination to the prisoner concerned;

(f) enabling a prisoner—

(i) to make such appeals against any such determination as may be prescribed to such person or persons as may be prescribed; and

(ii) following such appeals, to make an appeal to the Secretary of State, who may appoint a person—

(A) to consider any such appeal in such manner as that person thinks fit; and

(B) to recommend to the Secretary of State how it should be disposed of;

(g) as to the application of those sections in respect of prisoners who are transferred between prisons.

(14) Subject to subsection (15) below, rules made under this section may provide for the forfeiture of early release days awarded to a prisoner, whether on remand or following sentence, where he is guilty, under such rules, of a breach of discipline.

(15) Rules made under this section may not provide for the forfeiture of any early release days awarded to a mentally disordered offender, within the meaning of section 41 of the Crime and Punishment (Scotland) Act 1997, in respect of anything done by him when he is actually in a hospital in consequence of—

(a) a transfer direction under section 71 of the M1 Mental Health (Scotland) Act 1984 (removal to hospital of persons serving sentences of imprisonment and other persons); or

(b) a hospital direction under section 59A of the M2 Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 (hospital directions).

(16) Where a prisoner has not been awarded any early release days, or where the number of days he has been awarded is less than the number of days to be forfeited, the forfeiture referred to in subsection (14) above shall apply to any such days which may subsequently be awarded to that prisoner, but no such forfeiture shall result in a prisoner’s being held in prison for a period longer than the total sentence imposed on him by the sentencing court.”.

Marginal Citations

M1 1984 c.36.

M2 1995 c.46.