Magistrates are now able to hand out jail sentences of up to a year for a single offence in a bid to tackle the courts backlog
Bev Higgs, national chair of the Magistrates Association, said:"We are pleased that the government has placed its confidence in the magistracy and introduced this power, alongside other measures, to ease court delays."
Jo Sidhu QC, chair of the organisation, said:"Keeping back more cases in the magistrates may in any event only trigger more appeals to the crown court, adding to the growing lists of outstanding cases and diverting criminal advocates from tackling the pre-existing pile-up of trials." The CBA said that the number of outstanding crown court trials is one of the biggest issues contributing to the backlog - which is unaffected by any change to the sentencing powers of magistrates.
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