Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill
11:45 am
Edward Garnier (Shadow Minister, Justice; Harborough, Conservative)
Surely you will have consulted the Judicial Studies Board on this matter. You understand that you do not consider a suspended prison sentence until you have worked out whether that offence, that offender and the circumstances surrounding that particular set of facts merit a custodial punishment in the first place. You have got to cross the custodial threshold, and it is only when you have considered the special circumstances of the offender and perhaps other matters that you then go back to consider whether you should suspend that custodial sentence. It is not an alternative to a community sentence, it is an alternative to immediate custody.