§ 22. Mr. ViggersTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proposals he has to widen the powers of sentence available to the courts.
§ Mr. John PattenThe Criminal Justice Bill contains proposals to provide the courts with a wider and more flexible range of punishments in the community. These include powers to combine community service and probation, to impose curfews, and to link community with 217W financial penalties. The Bill also ensures that the courts continue to have adequate powers to pass custodial sentences on offenders whose offences warrant such sentences, or on whom such a sentence needs to be passed to protect the public from serious harm.