Promoting consistency in the Local Court

On 18 June 2003, the Attorney General asked us to consider "how best to promote consistency in sentencing in the Local Court". We received further details of the request on 3 July 2003.

Report

We transmitted our Report: How to Best Promote Consistency in Sentencing in the Local Court (PDF, 698.3 KB) to the Attorney General on 30 June 2004. We published the Report in May 2005.

Terms of reference

Terms of reference were  issued on 18 June 2004 to consider the issue of "how best to promote consistency in sentencing in the Local Court". The following more detailed terms of reference were received on 3 July 2003:

By way of clarification, I now formally request the NSW Sentencing Council under section 100 J (1)(d) of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 to prepare a Report on how to best promote consistency in sentencing in the Local Court.

In preparation of that report the Council may wish to consider issues such as: 

1. Current measures to promote consistency;

2. Whether consistency might be affected by the non availability of sentencing options such as periodic detention or from the non availability of supervision services;

3. The role of prosecutorial practice in ensuring consistency; or

4. Suggestions for ways to improve consistency.