Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people who committed each type of offence have been sentenced to a suspended term of imprisonment of over 51 weeks since 3 December 2012.

Sentencing is entirely a matter for our independent courts, which take into account all the facts of each case. The court has discretion to suspend a custodial sentence of two years or less, and it may also impose community requirements on the offender. If the offender breaches the suspended sentence order, either by failing to comply with the requirements or on conviction for a further offence whilst the order is operational, there is a presumption that the custodial sentence will be given effect. If the court decides that it would be unjust to give effect to the custodial sentence it must then either make the order more onerous or impose a fine.

Information on the number of suspended sentence orders imposed by the courts in 2013 and 2014, the latest figures, for each offence type is included in Criminal justice system statistics: December 2014 in the Criminal justice statistics outcomes by offence data tool: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/428943/cjs-outcomes-by-offence-data-tool.xls .The data held cannot be broken down to identify reliably the length of the custodial sentences suspended and breach information.