Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the Scottish Government's plans to restrict sentences of less than 12 months on (a) overcrowding, (b) safety and (c) reoffending.

Sentencing law in Scotland is different from that in England and Wales, and is devolved to the Scottish Government.

In England and Wales, unlike in Scotland, we already have a requirement in law that custody should be reserved for the most serious offences.

Under the Criminal Justice Act 2003, a court is required, before considering imposing any kind of custodial sentence, to be satisfied that the offence is so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified. Even when a court considers an offence to be so serious that custody is merited, it is required to consider whether community sentence would be better in that particular case, for example, for the purposes of rehabilitation. The law also requires that when the court has decided to impose a custodial sentence, it should be for the shortest time possible commensurate with the seriousness of the offence.