Legal Update - 18 November 2024
The maximum sentence that a magistrates’ court can impose in respect of a single either way offence has varied between six and 12 months and as from 18 November 2024 is increased again to 12 months, see section 224(1) and (1A)(b) of the Sentencing Act 2020. This applies to any case where an offender is convicted on or after that date whenever the offence was committed, see paragraph 14A(2) of Schedule 23 to that Act. It does not affect the maximum penalty for any offences, but affects whether they can be dealt with in the magistrates’ court or the Crown Court.
Until May 2022, the limit was six months; magistrates’ courts sentencing powers were then increased from a maximum of six months to 12 months intending to improve the efficiency in the criminal courts and reduce the outstanding case load after Covid by retaining more cases in the magistrates’ courts where they can be heard more quickly and freeing up capacity in the Crown Court for other cases to be heard. While this did reduce pressure on the Crown Court it also led to an increase in prison population and the limit was therefore decreased to six months in March 2023.
In light of the current backlog of cases, the government now aims to reduce these by again raising the limit to 12 months. It is thought that the recent implementation of the change in the automatic release point from 50% to 40% will provide sufficient capacity in the prison system to deal with more people being sentenced to imprisonment in the short term, while also reducing the number of prisoners on remand.
