The lord chancellor has announced that magistrates will have their sentencing powers increased, after a previous abandoned attempt by the last government
Shabana Mahmood MP confirmed the plans to allow magistrates to issue custodial sentences for up to 12 months for a single offence – a doubling of their current powers. The government claims the move will save approximately 2,000 days in the Crown court and help drive down the record remand population, which stood at 17,000 prisoners in June.
In March last year, the Conservative government took away these controversial powers which had been handed to magistrates by then-lord chancellor Dominic Raab in 2022.
Raab had been heavily criticised for increasing magistrates’ powers by parts of the legal profession, who warned that it would put additional strain on Crown courts and could undermine defendants’ right to a jury trial.
Mahmood said: ‘This government inherited a criminal justice system in crisis, with dangerously overcrowded prisons and victims waiting far too long to see justice. This marks a further step towards addressing the deep challenges in our criminal justice system, both reducing the record remand population in our jails and delivering swifter justice for victims.’ Association chair Mary Prior KC warned: ‘This is a knee-jerk reaction, done without consulting, once again, the criminal barristers or solicitors who deal every day with these cases. The government must stop simply tinkering around the edges of a system in the midst of collapse. ‘We need to have a collaborative and sensible approach to the impact of sentencing when prisons are already full.’
