Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of extending magistrates' sentencing powers to 12 months on (a) the number of defendants sentenced to imprisonment, (b) the average length of sentences and (c) the number of defendants remanded into custody.

The extension to magistrates’ court sentencing powers will allow for some cases, that would currently be sent to the Crown Court for sentencing, to be sentenced and processed in the magistrates’ court. By keeping more cases in the magistrates’ court, which has significantly shorter waiting lists than the Crown Court, cases may complete more quickly which may impact the prison population. This additional impact has been factored into our modelling and we have considered the additional prison places that may therefore be needed as a result.

While we have considered the potential impact on the prison population and sentence length which will be explored in an impact assessment, we do not anticipate any difference in the proportion of defendants sentenced to imprisonment or to sentence length as magistrates will be appropriately trained and required to follow the same sentencing guidelines as judges in the Crown Court. We will of course monitor any impacts closely. This policy is not expected to affect pre-trial detention and so there will be no impact on the number of defendants remanded in custody.

We are also legislating to include a power in the Judicial Review & Courts Bill which would allow the government to vary the limit on magistrates’ courts sentencing powers for triable either way offences so that they can be reduced back to 6 months if needed. This will help mitigate any risks associated with the extended powers.