Electronic Monitoring in Scotland Working Group Report

Future Legislative change

The Expert Group recognises that amendments to primary legislation will be necessary to enable all of the recommended future uses, set out above, to be introduced. In addition, the following specific legislative changes are recommended:

Recommendation 7: Legislative change

• Removing Section 16 and 17 Statutory Exclusions for Home Detention Curfew
• Providing for electronic monitoring as a requirement of a Community Payback Order
• Introducing legislative changes to allow for the introduction of GPS technology, including the necessary amendments to Data Protection legislation
• Enabling legislation to provide for a demonstration project on Remote Alcohol Monitoring
• Redefining an RLO as a standard standalone community sentence - that is not only considered as an alternative to custody.

The timescales for these changes are dependent on the timing of Primary legislation and the Group recognise that the passage of legislation is a matter for the Scottish Parliament.

Section 16 and 17 Statutory Exclusions (Prisoners and Criminal Proceedings (Scotland) Act 1993)

There is growing recognition amongst stakeholders that HDC can be helpful in supporting prisoners to reintegrate back into their community, subject to risk assessment on a case by case basis. Currently, prisoners who have previously been released on early release at the half way point of their sentence and who have been recalled for non-compliance with their licence conditions (section 17) or for committing a new crime (section 16) are permanently excluded from applying for HDC again. This does not recognise nor afford opportunities for people to demonstrate human development progress over time in terms of their rehabilitation and improvements in compliance and motivation to desist.

The Group therefore recommend that Section 16 and 17 Statutory Exclusions are removed and will include statistics as evidence in the final report. Removing these exclusions will require secondary legislation.