I was a magistrate and latterly chairman for about ten years .During that period I read many pre-sentence reports and not one in ten was actually helpful in sentencing.
Unfortunately, whenever a sentence much above a fine was going to kick in, such reports were obligatory.
I once asked the Chief Clerk to The Justices about this and he said if somebody were to be inevitably going to prison, a report was not required. All good theory.
Court clerks ensured that one was always requested - many causing an absurd 3 week delay in concluding the case.
When the reports were received in serious cases, they were as good as useless as the Probation Service refused ever to recommend custody!
This piece of PC lunacy effectively invalidated all reports - whether custody was contemplated or not as the full scale was not represented.
Laughable if it were not all so terribly serious.
