Commentary on Sections Part 12 - Sentencing Chapter 1: General provisions about sentencing Section 159: Disclosure of pre-sentence reports
465.This section re-enacts section 156 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act with changes in respect of the disclosure of pre-sentence reports to juveniles. Where the court does obtain a written pre-sentence report, copies of it must be provided to the persons specified in this section. Normally this should be the offender or his legal representative, the parent or guardian of an offender who is under 18, and the prosecutor. If however, the prosecutor is not of a description prescribed by the Secretary of State, the requirement to give the prosecutor a copy may be dispensed with if the court considers it inappropriate that he should receive one (subsection (4)). Subsection (5) provides that the prosecutor is only able to use the information in the pre-sentence report either for determining whether to make representations to the court or for making representations to the court about the content of the report. Where the offender is under 18 and it appears to the Court that the disclosure of a report to the offender or his parent or guardian would cause harm to the offender, the court is not obliged to give a copy to the offender or his parent or guardian if present in court (subsection (3)).