§ Mr. Rentonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress has been made in implementing the recommendation of the Streatfeild Committee that a probation report should be available to all higher courts to assist the court in determining the sentence most appropriate to each particular offender.
§ Mr. BrookeEverything possible to this end has been done by my Depart-176W ment. New arrangements for the preparation of pre-trial reports by the police, prison and probation services were promulgated in June, 1963. These arrangements were designed to enable assizes and quarter sessions to have the fullest possible information about the background of an offender immediately upon conviction, to enable them to decide how best to deal with him. The aim was also to improve the content and usefulness of the reports and to coordinate their preparation and presentation. The services concerned were asked to start to bring them into effect on 1st August, 1963, the date on which Sections 1 to 7 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1961, came into force.