(1) In this section
—
excluded offence means —
(a) an
offence the statutory penalty for which is or includes mandatory imprisonment;
or
(b) an
offence under section 79 of the Prisons Act 1981 ;
imprisonable offence means an offence the
statutory penalty for which is or includes imprisonment.
(2) This section
applies if a court is sentencing an offender for one or more imprisonable
offences, none of which is an excluded offence, at a time when the offender is
neither serving nor is liable to serve a term of imprisonment for another
offence.
(2a) This section does
not apply if a court is sentencing an offender for one or more offences that
were committed —
(a)
while the offender was subject to —
(i)
a parole order, home detention order, or work release
order, made under the Sentence Administration Act 1995 1 ; or
(ii)
a parole order, or re-entry release order, made under the
Sentence Administration Act 2003 ,
for another offence;
or
(b)
during the suspension period of a suspended term of imprisonment imposed for
another offence.
(3) If this section
applies, the court may make a PSO in respect of the offender if it considers
—
(a) that
the seriousness of the imprisonable offence or offences warrants the
imposition of a term of imprisonment under Part 13; and
(b) that
a PSO would allow the offender to address his or her criminal behaviour and
any factors which contributed to the behaviour; and
(c) that
if the offender were to comply with a PSO the court might not impose a term of
imprisonment under Part 13 for the offence or offences.
(4) If the court makes
a PSO in respect of an offender in respect of an imprisonable offence, the PSO
applies in respect of any other offence for which the court is sentencing the
offender, whether an imprisonable offence or not.
(5) A court must not
make a PSO in respect of an offender unless it has received a pre-sentence
report about the offender.
(6) If a pre-sentence
report says that the offender is suitable to be the subject of a PSO, but the
court decides not to make a PSO in respect of the offender, the court must
give written reasons for its decision.
[Section 33A inserted: No. 50 of 2003 s. 6;
amended: No. 41 of 2006 s. 72; No. 20 of 2013 s. 125; No. 45 of 2016 s. 64.]