Scottish Government

On 30 June 2010, the Scottish Parliament passed the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Bill. Royal Assent was received on 6 August 2010. The full text of the Act can be found through the legislation.gov.uk website - Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010.

This Act makes a number of changes to the law as follows:

• Make sentences served in the community more robust, immediate and visible through the creation of the Community Payback Order and introduce a presumption against short prison sentences of 3 months or less
• Create a Scottish Sentencing Council to ensure greater transparency and consistency in the sentencing process
• Take the fight to those involved in organised crime through the creation of new serious organised crime offences
• Create a new specific statutory offence in relation to stalking
• Crack down on prisoners who make use of advances in mobile phone technology to run their criminal empires from prison
• Raise the age at which a child can be prosecuted in adult criminal courts from eight to 12 to help ensure the rights and needs of children are balanced properly with the protection of communities
• Help the courts and prosecutors through a number of sensible reforms to the criminal law and court procedures - ensuring the interests of justice are served and protecting the rights of victims and witnesses
• Assist in the detection of crime through improvements to the law as regards when DNA and fingerprint data is able to be retained for use in detecting and prosecuting crime
• Provide a statutory framework for the disclosure of evidence to the defence in criminal cases - confirming the integrity as to how our courts deal with cases
• Ensure our licensing laws are robust

Scottish Government

March 2011