Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will provide specific examples of exceptional circumstances relating to the (a) offence and (b) offender under the proposed duty to impose suspended sentence orders for sentences of 12 months or less in the Sentencing Bill.

Where the presumption to suspend short sentences applies, the courts will still impose a sentence of immediate custody where there are exceptional circumstances which would justify not passing a suspended sentence.

It will be for the independent judiciary to determine what constitutes exceptional circumstances in this context.