Magistrates: Sentencing Powers

Lord Faulks Excerpts

Tuesday 8th November 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Keen of Elie]

Clearly, magistrates have the training and skill to consider a wide variety of sentencing powers and to impose a wide variety of sentences. We have no hesitation in acknowledging that. Whether they should or should not be custodial sentences, at the end of the day, must be a matter of judgment in each individual case.

[Lord Faulks (Con)]

My Lords, last week saw a disgraceful attack on the judiciary.

[Noble Lords]

Hear, hear.

[Lord Faulks]

Will my noble and learned friend take this opportunity to show the Government’s support for the entire cohort of the judiciary, whether it be the Supreme Court, the Divisional Court or the magistracy? Can he also confirm that, were magistrates to be given additional powers, it is overwhelmingly likely that those sentencing powers would be subject to a right of appeal, as of right, to the Crown Court?

[Lord Keen of Elie]

My Lords, we have a judiciary of the highest calibre. We have a free press, which is not always of the highest calibre. Sensationalist and ill-informed attacks can undermine public confidence in the judiciary, but our public can have every confidence in our judiciary, a confidence which I believe must be shared by the Executive.