# The Home Detention Curfew (Amendment of Specified Time Periods) (Scotland) Order 2025

Draft 2025, ISBN 9780111063040

Section 3AA(1) of the Prisoners and Criminal Proceedings (Scotland) Act 1993 (“the 1993 Act”) provides Scottish Ministers with the power to release a prisoner on licence. Such a release requires to be subject to a curfew condition (and is commonly known as a release on home detention curfew) (section 12AA of the 1993 Act). Section 3AA(2) provides that Scottish Ministers cannot exercise that power before the prisoner has served one quarter of their sentence. Subsection (3) provides that a short-term prisoner may be released on licence at any point in the period which begins 180 days (i.e. 166 days plus 14 days) before they are otherwise entitled to be released under Part 1 of that Act and ends 14 days before that point is reached. A long-term prisoner may be released on licence during the period which begins 180 days before they have served one-half of their sentence and ends 14 days before that point is reached.

Made under: Prisoners and Criminal Proceedings (Scotland) Act 1993 (Section 3AA)

PDFs: Printed copy https://openlegislation.uk/draft-home-detention-curfew-amendment-of-specified-time-periods-scotland-order-2025/pdf/sdsi_9780111063040_en.pdf; Draft Policy Note https://openlegislation.uk/draft-home-detention-curfew-amendment-of-specified-time-periods-scotland-order-2025/pdf/sdsipn_9780111063040_en_001.pdf

## Introductory text

Draft Regulations laid before the Scottish Parliament under section 45 of the Prisoners and Criminal Proceedings (Scotland) Act 1993, for approval by resolution of the Scottish Parliament.
Prisons
Made 2025
Coming into force 20th October 2025
The Scottish Ministers make the following Order in exercise of the powers conferred by section 3AA(6)(b) and (c) of the Prisoners and Criminal Proceedings (Scotland) Act 1993 and all other powers enabling them to do so.
In accordance with section 45(3) of that Act, a draft of this instrument has been laid before and approved by resolution of the Scottish Parliament.

## 1 Citation and commencement

This Order may be cited as the Home Detention Curfew (Amendment of Specified Time Periods) (Scotland) Order 2025 and comes into force on 20 October 2025.

## 2 Amendment of section 3AA of the Prisoners and Criminal Proceedings (Scotland) Act 1993

(1) Section 3AA of the Prisoners and Criminal Proceedings (Scotland) Act 1993 is amended as follows.
(2) In subsection (2), for “one quarter” substitute “15%”.
(3) In subsection (3), for “166 days” substitute “196 days”.

## Signature

Name
A member of the Scottish Government
St Andrew’s House,
Edinburgh
Date

## Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Order)
Section 3AA(1) of the Prisoners and Criminal Proceedings (Scotland) Act 1993 (“the 1993 Act”) provides Scottish Ministers with the power to release a prisoner on licence. Such a release requires to be subject to a curfew condition (and is commonly known as a release on home detention curfew) (section 12AA of the 1993 Act). Section 3AA(2) provides that Scottish Ministers cannot exercise that power before the prisoner has served one quarter of their sentence. Subsection (3) provides that a short-term prisoner may be released on licence at any point in the period which begins 180 days (i.e. 166 days plus 14 days) before they are otherwise entitled to be released under Part 1 of that Act and ends 14 days before that point is reached. A long-term prisoner may be released on licence during the period which begins 180 days before they have served one-half of their sentence and ends 14 days before that point is reached.
Article 2(1) of this Order amends section 3AA(2) of the 1993 Act to provide that the proportion of sentence that a prisoner must serve before being able to be released under section 3AA(1) is changed from one quarter of the prisoner’s sentence to 15% of the prisoner’s sentence.
Article 2(2) of this Order amends the period specified in section 3AA(3) of the 1993 Act. That is the period during which the Scottish Ministers may, under section 3AA(1) of that Act, release a prisoner on home detention curfew.
The period during which a prisoner can be released on such a licence is therefore increased from 180 days to 210 days (i.e. 196 days plus 14 days).

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/sdsi/2025/9780111063040 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/draft-home-detention-curfew-amendment-of-specified-time-periods-scotland-order-2025
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.