The court must order a pre-sentence report before imposing a CCTO, ICO, CBO (unless its only condition is that the defendant serve up to 250 hours of unpaid community work) or YJC (see: "Sentencing orders", above), and may order such a report in any other case (s.96 Sentencing Act). The pre-sentence report must be filed with the court, and copies of the report must be given to the prosecutor, the defence lawyer and (if the court consents) to the defendant (s.98).

The prosecutor or defence lawyer may file with the court a notice of intention to dispute the pre-sentence report, which allows evidence to be led and cross-examined on the report (s.99).