Commentary Release and supervision of offenders sentenced to less than 2 years Section 6: Supervision of certain young offenders after detention and training order
66.Section 6 relates to offenders in respect of whom Detention and Training Orders (DTO) have been made, who are 18 or over when they reach the halfway point of the order.
67.Section 6(3) amends section 103 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 so that the power of the Secretary of State to vary by order when the period of supervision of a DTO will end does not apply where an order is made and the offender is aged 18 or over at the halfway point of the term of the DTO.
68.Section 6(4) inserts new section 106B of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000. Subsection (1) of new section 106B sets out the circumstances where further supervision applies, that is: where the offender is aged 18 or over at the halfway point of their DTO, the DTO is of less than 24 months and the DTO was imposed for an offence committed on or after the day on which section 6(4) comes into force.
69.Subsection (2) of section 106B applies sections 256AA(2) to (11), 256B, 256AC, 256D and 256E of, and Schedule 19A to, the 2003 Act (that is, the new sections inserted by this Act introducing supervision for sentences of less than 2 years) but with the modifications set out in subsections (3) to (5) of section 106B.
70.Subsection (3) of section 106B defines the supervision period for a young offender who turns 18 before the halfway point in their sentence. The supervision period for these offenders begins at the end of their detention and training order and ends 12 months after the halfway point of the detention and training order.
71.In this way an offender serving a DTO of 10 months would currently spend (subject to certain exceptions) half of the sentence (i.e. 5 months) in custody and half subject to supervision in the community. Once the Act is in force, such an offender would be subject to an additional supervision period (to start once the DTO comes to an end) of 7 months.
72.Subsection (4) of section 106B provides that the supervisor of offenders subject to further supervision must be either an officer of a provider of probation services or a member of a Youth Offending Team (YOT). Subsection (5) extends the power under new section 256AB(4) of the 2003 Act so that it includes a power to make provision about the supervision requirements that can be imposed by virtue of new section 106B.