Source · Select Committees · Justice Committee
Recommendation 25
25
Accepted
Conduct 12-month review of increased magistrates' sentencing power and Crown Court workload impact.
Recommendation
The Committee supports the decision to increase the sentencing power of magistrates. The Government should conduct a review of the change 12 months after it has come into force and evaluate its effect on the workload of the Crown Court. (Paragraph 83) The case for a Royal Commission on the criminal justice system
Government Response Summary
The government accepted the recommendation, stating that to understand the impact of increased magistrates' sentencing powers on the Crown Court, they are actively monitoring and assessing relevant court and prison data on a monthly basis.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
Increasing magistrates’ court sentencing powers will deliver swifter access to justice and further assist court recovery. The policy aims to improve efficiency in the criminal courts, reduce the backlog in the Crown Court and speed up case completion by retaining more cases in magistrates’ courts. Increasing powers in this way will move up to 8,000 sentencing hearings from the Crown Court to the magistrates’ court, resulting in a one-off reduction in the Crown Court backlog of about 1,700 cases. Then, because those 8,000 cases no longer have to be heard in the Crown Court, the policy will free up approximately 1,700 Crown Court sitting days a year for other work, which could allow an extra 500 jury trials per year to take place. To understand the impact that the extension of magistrates’ courts sentencing powers has on the Crown Court system, we are monitoring and assessing relevant court and prison data on a monthly basis, which will give the best chance of identifying impacts of the policy as quickly as possible. We also supplemented this change by legislating in the Judicial Review and Courts Act for a power to vary the limit on the length of sentence that the magistrates’ court may give to either 6 months or 12 months in the future. This power will ensure we have maximum flexibility in the future to respond to changing circumstances.