Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the maximum sentence will be that a judge could impose on a convicted person when tried under the proposed new swift courts within the Crown Court.

The new ‘swift courts’ will operate within the existing Crown Court which means the same procedures in the Crown Court will apply, apart from mode of trial. Judges will assign triable-either-ways cases to the new Crown Court Bench Division where the likely sentence is three years or less, but they will retain the full sentencing powers of the Crown Court.