Section 67 – Adjournment of case before sentence
359.Section 67 amends section 201 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act which deals with the power of the court to adjourn following conviction pending sentence. Usually this is to obtain further reports which will help the judge to determine what the sentence should be.
360.Section 67 provides that when a court adjourns a case, the maximum period for which an adjournment can last before a further court hearing should be ‘four weeks, or on cause shown, eight weeks’ in all cases, whether the convicted person is remanded in custody or given bail.
361.Previously a shorter period of three weeks was prescribed for those in custody. If reports or information were not available by the end of that period, the convicted person had to be brought back to court for a further three-week adjournment.