Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bellamy on 5 March (HL2679), and in the light of recent reports of mitigating circumstances such as acute illness appear to have been overlooked, whether they intend to amend the training provided to magistrates to specify more clearly their powers to draw mitigation to the attention of prosecutors.

To preserve the independence of the judiciary, the Lady Chief Justice has the statutory responsibility for judicial training, including magistrates, under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005. These responsibilities are exercised through the Judicial College.

Any training provided to magistrates on this matter is therefore for the independent judiciary to determine and it is not for the Government to comment.