Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to review the processes of the single justice procedure as used by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency; and whether such organisations using this procedure are obliged to take into account all evidence submitted in mitigation before proceeding with an individual case.

The Single Justice Procedure (SJP) is used by a number of approved prosecutors, including the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA). It is a more proportionate way of dealing with straightforward, uncontested, summary-only non-imprisonable offences. The prosecuting body cannot choose this route for any case which falls outside of these criteria. SJP also cannot be used in cases where a defendant pleads not guilty.

If entering a guilty plea online or submitting by post, defendants have the option to enter mitigating circumstances alongside their plea, to be considered by the magistrate dealing with their case. Guilty pleas and any entered mitigation are available on the system for the prosecutor to review as soon as the plea is received online or scanned into the system if received by post, however, prosecutors are not required to view this. For any case in the magistrates’ court, there is currently no system functionality to refer all guilty plea cases to the prosecutor before it is referred to a magistrate and there is no legal requirement to do so. This means that, in practice, prosecutors may not see the mitigation.

Prosecutorial review of mitigation has never been an aspect of the process for dealing with written guilty pleas; it is not specific to SJP. The system that applied before SJP was that the written guilty plea was sent to court and read out in court. The prosecutor would therefore only hear the mitigation if they chose to attend court. Having prosecutors review mitigation has never been an aspect of the process for dealing with written guilty pleas.

The mitigation provided is considered by the magistrate dealing with the case, who is supported by a legal adviser. The mitigation provided sometimes suggests that the prosecution may not be in the public interest; a magistrate can then adjourn the case and ask the prosecutor to review the mitigation provided. Whether the case is referred to the prosecutor to review is a judicial decision. The mitigation provided by defendants is considered by magistrates in the same manner whether the case goes through SJP or is held in open court.

At present, the Government has no plans to amend the SJP process.