Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bellamy on 5 March (HL2679), and in the light of recent reports of mitigating circumstances such as acute illness appear to have been overlooked, whether they intend to amend the training provided to magistrates to specify more clearly their powers to draw mitigation to the attention of prosecutors.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
To preserve the independence of the judiciary, the Lady Chief Justice has the statutory responsibility for judicial training, including magistrates, under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005. These responsibilities are exercised through the Judicial College.
Any training provided to magistrates on this matter is therefore for the independent judiciary to determine and it is not for the Government to comment.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to review the processes of the single justice procedure as used by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency; and whether such organisations using this procedure are obliged to take into account all evidence submitted in mitigation before proceeding with an individual case.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
The Single Justice Procedure (SJP) is used by a number of approved prosecutors, including the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA). It is a more proportionate way of dealing with straightforward, uncontested, summary-only non-imprisonable offences. The prosecuting body cannot choose this route for any case which falls outside of these criteria. SJP also cannot be used in cases where a defendant pleads not guilty.
If entering a guilty plea online or submitting by post, defendants have the option to enter mitigating circumstances alongside their plea, to be considered by the magistrate dealing with their case. Guilty pleas and any entered mitigation are available on the system for the prosecutor to review as soon as the plea is received online or scanned into the system if received by post, however, prosecutors are not required to view this. For any case in the magistrates’ court, there is currently no system functionality to refer all guilty plea cases to the prosecutor before it is referred to a magistrate and there is no legal requirement to do so. This means that, in practice, prosecutors may not see the mitigation.
Prosecutorial review of mitigation has never been an aspect of the process for dealing with written guilty pleas; it is not specific to SJP. The system that applied before SJP was that the written guilty plea was sent to court and read out in court. The prosecutor would therefore only hear the mitigation if they chose to attend court. Having prosecutors review mitigation has never been an aspect of the process for dealing with written guilty pleas.
The mitigation provided is considered by the magistrate dealing with the case, who is supported by a legal adviser. The mitigation provided sometimes suggests that the prosecution may not be in the public interest; a magistrate can then adjourn the case and ask the prosecutor to review the mitigation provided. Whether the case is referred to the prosecutor to review is a judicial decision. The mitigation provided by defendants is considered by magistrates in the same manner whether the case goes through SJP or is held in open court.
At present, the Government has no plans to amend the SJP process.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many prosecutions have been brought by local authorities under the Highways Act 1980 against motorists seeking to charge electric vehicles on the street.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of prosecutions for criminal offences in the Outcomes by Offence data tools.
Offences covered include the offence of ‘other obstruction, waiting and parking offences’, where this offence is most likely to be covered. However, to identify whether the prosecutions are for charging electric vehicles on the street specifically would require examination of individual court records, which would be of disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to launch a consultation into the efficacy of alternatives to the standard punitive sentences, such as rehabilitation, for those convicted of drug driving offences.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
The Government intends to conduct a call for evidence on parts of the Road Traffic Act which would be expected to include issues around drink and drug driving, and the offence of failure to stop and report.
We are committed to making the best use of community sentences to ensure that more offenders with drugs needs are diverted into treatment into the community rather than custody where appropriate.
We have an extensive programme of work to get offenders off drugs and into recovery. This includes piloting three Intensive Supervision Courts from 26 June, two with a focus on substance misuse, which will divert offenders from short custodial sentences into enhanced community-based sentences for those whose offending behaviour is driven by substance misuse and other complex needs. These sentences will involve treatment requirements, frequent random drug testing and a broad package of wraparound support to tackle the root causes of offending.
More widely, we want to increase the use of Drug Rehabilitation Requirements (DRRs) which require individuals to engage in treatment in the community with their consent, as well as undergo regular drug testing to ensure compliance. We are investing additional resource to increase drug testing of offenders to enable probation to more effectively monitor compliance with these requirements. Our recruitment of over 50 new Health and Justice Co-ordinators in every probation region will also support the delivery of DRRs by working with health partners to improve access to treatment.