Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, if he will extend the unduly lenient sentence scheme to cover (a) all serious crime cases and (b) cases tried at magistrates' courts.

The ULS scheme remains an important avenue for victims, family members and the public to ensure justice is delivered in the most serious cases.

Since its inception in 1989, the ULS scheme has been extended to include additional offences, including some sexual offences, and offences involving child cruelty and modern slavery. In 2017 the Government re-committed in our manifesto to look at further extension and, as a result, the scheme was extended in 2017, and again in 2018, to include a number of terror-related offences.

We continue to look carefully at the ambit of the scheme.