Pre-Sentence Reports

Fact 1

Pre-Sentence Reports (PSRs) are prepared by the Probation Service and contain information about a defendant to assist the court at sentencing.

99,006

PRE-SENTENCE REPORTS WERE ISSUED IN 2024¹

Fact 2

The Sentencing Council States:

“When considering a community or custodial sentence,
the court must request and consider a pre-sentence
report (PSR) before forming an opinion of the
sentence, unless it considers that it is unnecessary to
obtain a pre-sentence report.”

A pre-sentence report was prepared in

51%

of cases where the court imposed a custodial sentence or community order in 2024.²

Fact 3

The number of PSRs fell between 2015 and 2020 but has since increased.³

Note: The steep drop in 2020 is likely attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fact 4

PSRs are slightly more common for men than women.

In 2024, men accounted for 79% of all sentences
and 86% of pre-sentence reports.

By contrast, women accounted for 21% of all sentences,
but only 14% of pre-sentence reports.⁴

Note: This comparison does not account for gender differences in offending, which may affect the use of a PSR.

Fact 5

Relationship between Sentence Proposed in a PSR and Sentence Imposed by the Court

Note: Sentence concordance refers to the frequency with which sentence
outcomes (rows in the above table) match the PSR’s proposed sentence (columns). For instance, in 88% of cases where a PSR recommended immediate custody, the court ended up sentencing the offender to immediate custody. In 9% of cases where immediate custody was recommended, the court settled on a suspended sentence order. As can be seen, the concordance is greatest when the PSR recommends immediate custody, lowest when the PSR recommends a discharge.