Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will publish his Department's impact assessment of the effect of increasing magistrates' sentencing powers on (a) sentence lengths and (b) prison numbers.

An impact assessment and equality impact assessment have been published for the Judicial Review and Courts Bill, which covers the clause to vary the limit of magistrates’ courts sentencing powers between 6 and 12 months. This can be found here Judicial Review and Courts Bill - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

We will publish a further impact assessment and equality impact assessment when the powers to extend magistrates' courts sentencing powers are commenced in the coming months, which will include the potential impact on sentence lengths and prison numbers.