Clause 11
Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill
11:15 am
David Burrowes (Shadow Minister, Justice; Enfield, Southgate, Conservative)
I do not take issue with the technical amendment, but perhaps I could take the opportunity to make a comment in more of a stand part mode. The Magistrates Association’s is concerned that clause 11 is repetitious and unnecessary. That theme developed in our debate on clause 10. Clause 11 makes the point that sentencers do not need to impose a community sentence when the community threshold has been reached, but magistrates and the judiciary are already aware of that, day in, day out, in the courts. If they wanted a reminder, they could look at the “Adult Court Bench Book”, or they could refer to the Sentencing Guidelines Council, which states:
“Sentencers must consider all of the disposals available at the time of sentence...before reaching the provisional decision to make a community sentence, so that, even where the threshold for a community sentence has been passed, a financial penalty or discharge may still be an appropriate penalty. Where an offender has a low risk of re-offending, particular care needs to be taken in the light of evidence that indicates that there are circumstances where inappropriate intervention will increase the risk of re-offending rather than decrease it.”
In addition, the point is made that enforcement of financial penalties make them a more viable sentence in a wider range of cases. Guidance and discretion are already available for the magistrates not to impose a community sentence, even if the threshold is reached, when there are particular mitigating circumstances, so why is it necessary for the Government to seek to spell matters out in additional legislation?