Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department plans to review the length of maximum sentence for animal cruelty offences.

We keep maximum penalties under review. This includes sentencing trends, and whether the courts may be finding their sentencing powers inadequate.

Data on the average sentence length for animal cruelty can be found in the Outcomes by offence table at the attached link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-december-2014