Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, on what grounds offenders who received the maximum prison sentences for the possession of (a) class A and (b) class B drugs received those sentences in 2012.

Drug offending is serious in itself and drug abuse also underlies a huge volume of acquisitive and violent crime which can blight communities. Parliament sets the maximum penalty for an offence to deal with the worst possible case. Sentencing in individual cases is a matter for our independent courts, which must follow sentencing guidelines issued by the independent Sentencing Council. The guidelines provide a non-exhaustive list of factors to be taken into consideration and the court may depart from the guidelines in a particular case where it considers that it is in the interest of justice to do so.