SENTENCES IMPOSED BY MAGISTRATES' COURTS

EDM number 1359 in 1993-94, proposed by Patrick Nicholls on 21/06/1994.

That this House notes with the greatest concern that, in recent days, sentences imposed by magistrates, both lay and stipendiary, appear to be seriously open to question; notes in particular that a Stipendiary Magistrate, sentencing a man with previous convictions for violence and criminal damage, for a vicious and unprovoked assault, is alleged to have expressed words recording sympathy for the convicted person and not his victim; is gravely concerned that the confidence which the public is entitled to have in the competence of its courts is gravely undermined by the present inability of the Attorney General to challenge apparently inappropriate sentences imposed by magistrates' courts; and calls upon the Government as a matter of urgency to bring forward proposals for the Attorney General to have such a power.

This motion has been signed by a total of 2 MPs.