Offender Rehabilitation Act 2014

Offender Rehabilitation Act 2014

2014 CHAPTER 11

Commentary

Release and supervision of offenders sentenced to less than 2 years

Section 7: Minor and consequential provision

73. Section 7 introduces Schedule 3 to the Act, which contains a number of amendments consequential to sections 1 to 6.

74. Subsection (2) of section 7 provides the Secretary of State with a power to amend by order the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 and the 2003 Act to replace references to dates on which a provision of this Act comes into force with the actual date.

75. The most significant consequential amendments made by Schedule 3 are to Schedule 1 to the 1997 Act. Schedule 1 to the 1997 Act provides for transfers of licence and other forms of post-release supervision from one United Kingdom jurisdiction to another through two means:

• Restricted: the sentencing provisions of the exporting jurisdiction are incorporated into the law of the receiving jurisdiction in relation to the transferred offender so that the offender can be managed in the receiving jurisdiction. The exporting jurisdiction retains overall control of the sentence.

• Unrestricted: the offender transfers onto an equivalent sentence in the receiving jurisdiction’s legislation. The receiving jurisdiction assumes complete control of the offender.

76. Paragraphs 2 and 8 of Schedule 3 to this Act bring post-sentence supervision within the scope of Schedule 1 to the 1997 Act, permitting transfer of the post-sentence supervision period on a restricted or unrestricted basis.

77. Paragraph 3 of Schedule 3 to this Act amends Schedule 1 to the 1997 Act such that post-sentence supervision applies as part of Scots law to offenders transferred to Scotland when in custody, on licence or in the post-sentence supervision period. The amendment also provides a ‘gloss’ to certain England and Wales specific terms so that when incorporated into Scots law the terms are read as being the equivalent in Scotland. It also modifies the effect of the supervision provisions to account for the differences in Scots law. The modifications would provide for:

• disapplication of post-sentence supervision when an offender is subject to certain licences particular to Scotland;

• Scottish Ministers to be able to move offenders given custody for breach of post-sentence supervision between different types of custodial institution;

• electronic monitoring to be tailored to Scottish circumstances;

• supervisors in Scotland to be able to bring proceedings for breach of a Supervision Default Order; and

• the Scottish court to be able to modify a supervision default order if another Scottish sentence is imposed.

78. The amendments to Schedule 1 to the 1997 Act made by paragraph 3 also provide further modifications where the post-sentence supervision in Scotland follows a DTO so that the supervisor is the officer of a Scottish local authority and Scottish Ministers are able to impose and modify supervision requirements (consistent with previous provisions in Schedule 1 for imposing DTO requirements on offenders transferred to Scotland).

79. Paragraph 4 of Schedule 3 to this Act amends Schedule 1 to the 1997 Act to provide that for an offender subject to a supervision default order transferred between Scotland and England and Wales the area in which the offender resides will determine the court with jurisdiction to manage the supervision default order before and after the transfer.

80. Paragraph 5 of Schedule 3 to this Act amends Schedule 1 to the 1997 Act to have the same effect in relation to Northern Ireland law as the amendments made by paragraph 3 have in relation to Scots law, but with the following differences:

• The power for the court to impose a Supervision Default Order is not incorporated into Northern Ireland law;

• The glossing provisions do not apply to supervision under section 256B of the 2003 Act; and

• The power to impose supervision requirements on offenders subject to post-sentence supervision after a DTO is retained by the UK Secretary of State (consistent with existing provisions in Schedule 1 for imposing DTO requirements on offenders transferred to Northern Ireland).

81. Paragraph 6 of Schedule 3 to this Act amends Schedule 1 to the 1997 Act to provide that, for unrestricted transfers, Ministers in Scotland or Northern Ireland would be able to direct how the supervision period of an offender transferred on an unrestricted basis is to be dealt with if there is no equivalent form of supervision under the law of that jurisdiction.

82. Paragraph 7 of Schedule 3 to this Act amends Schedule 1 to the 1997 Act to provide for the service of court processes relating to post-sentence supervision issued in Scotland or in England and Wales in the other jurisdiction. It also provides for provisions in Scots law on electronic monitoring to apply to electronic monitoring imposed as part of a supervision default order enforced in Scotland.