When to prepare an oral report
An oral report may be prepared when directly requested by the judge, or if any of the following apply:
- The offender is appearing on a first offence and the likely outcome is community work (CW) and/or a fine, e.g. for a minor theft or first excess breath alcohol offence.
- The offender is already on-strength or recently terminated, and the current offence is not significantly different in character from their previous offending.
- If the offender is appearing in a specialist domestic violence court, an oral report can be used to recommend supervision.
Notes:
- An oral report cannot be prepared for the high court.
- Oral reports must not be prepared on offenders who are likely to receive any sentences above supervision in the sentencing hierarchy.
How to prepare an oral report
An oral report may either involve:
- briefly interviewing the offender with a focus on obtaining the specific information requested by the judge, OR
- making enquiries with other parties with a focus on obtaining the specific information requested by the judge, e.g. if the offender is eligible for a programme or if CW is available in an area, OR
- providing the on-strength information by way of an oral report.
Note: Depending on the information contained in the oral report, it can be delivered verbally to the court either with, or without, the production of a written version.
Risk or safety factors while preparing oral report
If any risk or safety factors emerge during the brief interview with the offender, or while undertaking any enquiries, the probation officer should:
- inform the judge that it is more appropriate that the offender be interviewed using the short assessment report
- conduct the short assessment report, and
- address any immediate risk or safety factors.
Note: If the assessment cannot be completed on the day of request, ensure any immediate risk or safety factors are followed up.
Recording oral information - guidelines
The following are guidelines for recording oral information:
- All notes taken to substantiate an oral report must be retained until the expiry of any appeal period.
- Any on-strength information should be summarised in the oral report.
- It is likely that some offenders may be subject to more than one sentence. Therefore the oral report should provide comment on the offender's compliance with all current sentences.
- In some cases the judge may request that a copy of the oral report be made available to the:
- court
- prosecutor
- offender, and
- offender's counsel.
Therefore the report writer should be mindful that the language used in the report is appropriate and does not contain departmental jargon.
- An oral report can be completed either manually or on IOMS. Manual reports must be downloaded into IOMS within 24 hours of sentencing.
