Distribution of Pre-sentence Reports

Who receives copies

A copy of the completed PSR must be given to:

• the court
• the offender, and
• the offender’s lawyer (if the offender is represented).

Note: All reports should be provided in printed form, not electronic. Receipt of the reports to the above should be documented.

Legislative reference: On request, a copy of the report may also be given to the prosecutor under section 29(1)(e) of the Sentencing Act 2002.

Others who may have access are:

• CPPS
• Prison Services (PS) (including risk/needs assessment)
• the prosecution counsel appearing on sentence or appealing against sentence
• a member of the New Zealand Parole Board (NZPB), and
• the director of Area Mental Health Services for a hospital when the offender is remanded, detained, or on leave under the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act 1992.

Copy to offender

The offender’s copy must be accompanied by an explanation of the contents. The offender must confirm their understanding by signing the provision of information receipt. This is then filed in their sentence file.

If the offender has reading difficulties, arrangements must be made for the report to be read to them. This is the same as having received a copy of the report.

Note: Record on the file that the report was read to the offender.

Prosecution counsel access to reports

A copy of the PSR(s) and a copy of the reparation report must be made available to the counsel for the prosecution appearing on sentence, or on appeal against the sentence.

The prosecution counsel’s copy of the PSR must:

• be stamped with ‘Counsel’s Copy’ stamp, and
• have private information relating to other individuals deleted.

In all cases where the serious fraud office is undertaking a prosecution, and a PSR has been requested by the court, a copy of the PSR will be sent directly to the serious fraud office.

Correction of inaccuracies

The subject of the PSR has the right to dispute any information in the PSR, and to have:

• the information corrected, and
• if the probation officer is not willing to change the PSR, their comments can be recorded on all copies of the PSR.

Legislative reference: Principle 7 Privacy Act 1993.

Whenever an inaccuracy or omission is made known, the probation officer must:

• record this on all available copies of the PSR, including:
  • soft copies (computer records), and
  • court-held copies
• if it is reasonably practicable to do so, inform everyone to whom the personal information has been disclosed of the steps taken to correct it, or attach a note to the information, and
• inform the person who made the request for correction of the action(s) taken as a result of their request.

Note: No copies of the PSR should leave the CPPS service centre without being corrected according to these changes.