Section 327: Local probation boards
646.Section 327 inserts a provision into the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 (“the 2000 Act”) in substitution for a similar provision inserted into that Act by Schedule 16. The reason for this, and the effect of the inserted provision, is as follows.
647.Paragraph 178 of Schedule 16 inserts a new section – section 5A – into the 2000 Act. This provision empowers the Secretary of State to make arrangements for local probation boards to provide the full range of their professional services in respect of persons who appear before service courts. Examples of these services would include the preparation of pre-sentence reports, and the supervision of offenders subject to an overseas community order.
648.It is intended that paragraph 178 of Schedule 16 should come into force as soon as is practicable. As a consequence, the section it inserts into the 2000 Act is necessarily an interim measure, containing references to the SDAs (which are to be repealed by the Act) and to courts constituted under those Acts.
649.Section 327 is intended to come into force on the Act’s main commencement date, and sets out a new section 5A that is consistent with the rest of the Act, and is substituted for that inserted by Schedule 16. The amendment to the 2000 Act set out in this section is to the same effect as that inserted by Schedule 16.
