All sanctions must be open to the courts

The public expects that upon a finding or admission of guilt in a criminal matter, a suitable punishment is handed down to the individual concerned.

By doing so, the courts complete the circle of justice being done and being seen to be done.

It is taken for granted that the individual involved will then pay their penance, whether that is in the form of time in prison, a community service order, the payment of a fine or some other disposal.

But it appears that in some cases sanctions handed down by the courts are not being dealt with in what the public might expect to be a timely fashion.

A case involving an Angus sex offender shed light on the situation.

The offender is being assessed for a restriction of liberty order but will not be put to work in the community unpaid, as was the first wish of the court.

Sheriff Drummond raised concerns from the bench of a delay of more than two years in access to unpaid work placements in Angus.

While Covid has caused very significant issues for communitybased disposals, it is alarming to hear that offenders going through the courts right now might have to wait until 2023 before completing orders raised against them.

Approved online programmes are being utilised to ease some of the backlog, but it is not an absolute fix.

And it is questionable from a public expectation perspective whether such outcomes represent satisfactory punishment.

Unpaid work in the community is a valuable tool in the court’s armoury.

All efforts must be made to ensure it is a sanction that remains open to the courts to set down.