Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bellamy on 2 May (HL6631), how many times magistrate courts have awarded a sentence of more than the Sentencing Council's maximum sentence for any offence, where the legal maximum is longer than the Sentencing Council's guidelines, in the past five years.

The Ministry of Justice does not hold this information in the format requested. To obtain this information would be at disproportionate cost.

Further to PQ HL6631, you may be interested to know that the Council listened to the concerns raised by stakeholders in response to its consultation and decided to increase the sentencing range upper limit for the most serious animal cruelty offences to 3 years and 6 months custody.