Passing buck instead of passing sentences

FOR years, the Scottish Government has been at pains to stress it does not have any influence over the thinking or decisions made by the Scottish Sentencing Council.

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The organisation is described as an “an independent, advisory body” whose “work is not directed by the Scottish Government”.

However, the unavoidable fact is that it was actually established by the Scottish Government in October 2015.

Three years ago, the sentencing body came up with the radical idea the brains of offenders under 25-years-old had not yet developed fully and therefore, a more lenient approach to them should be adopted by the courts.