Sentencing Act 1995

In this section —

an offence the statutory penalty for which is or includes mandatory imprisonment; or

an offence under section 79 of the Prisons Act 1981;

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.

This section does not apply if a court is sentencing an offender for one or more offences that were committed —

while the offender was subject to —

a parole order, home detention order, or work release order, made under the Sentence Administration Act 1995 ¹; or

a parole order, or re‑entry release order, made under the Sentence Administration Act 2003,

during the suspension period of a suspended term of imprisonment imposed for another offence.

If this section applies, the court may make a PSO in respect of the offender if it considers —

that the seriousness of the imprisonable offence or offences warrants the imposition of a term of imprisonment under Part 13; and

that a PSO would allow the offender to address his or her criminal behaviour and any factors which contributed to the behaviour; and

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.

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.

A court must not make a PSO in respect of an offender unless it has received a pre‑sentence report about the offender.

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.