UK Edition
Magistrates are to lose their power to jail offenders for up to a year and will be pushed back to maximum sentences of only six months after the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) ended a scheme designed to speed up justice.
The move could help ease pressure on crisis-hit jails as cases will now take longer to come to trial as they will have to be referred up to the crown court.
Prisons are said to be just 600 places short of their capacity with the MoJ having commissioned up to 400 police cells to take the over-supply of convicted offenders.
JPs were handed the powers last May to jail offenders for more serious crimes of assault, drug dealing, affray, fraud and theft as part of an attempt to speed up justice in the wake of the Covid pandemic.
But the MoJ quietly laid out new regulations on Thursday which will peg magistrates back to a maximum of six months from the end of March in three weeks’ time.
An MoJ spokesman said: “We thank the magistrates for all their hard work to help us bring down the backlog following the pandemic and ensure victims get the justice they deserve.
“Increasing their sentencing powers was one of many measures introduced to help address the impact of the pandemic on the criminal justice system, but we have always retained the flexibility for this to be changed as needed.
“We continue to make sure those who commit the most serious offences are put behind bars for longer.”
Kirsty Brimelow KC, chair of the Criminal Bar Association, said: “The reversal of government policy is welcomed. Giving additional sentencing powers to magistrates always would increase the risk of additional people being imprisoned for short sentences which places pressure on already overcrowded prisons.”
Legal sources claimed magistrates had been unable to keep pace with the demand with hundreds of trials being adjourned because of shortages of lawyers to present the cases or the lack of JPs to hear them.
However, the MoJ maintained there had been no delays as a result of the change and noted that where there were shortages of magistrates, they could reduce the bench from three to two.
There are currently backlogs of 61,000 cases in the crown court leading to victims waiting months for justice. However the MoJ is recruiting an extra 1,000 judges in 2022/23 and has removed the limit on sitting days in the Crown Court for the second financial year in a row.
It has also announced the continued use of 24 Nightingale courtrooms into the 2023/24 financial year to bring down the backlogs.