§ Mr. HealdTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on how many occasions(a) the trial judge and (b) the Court of Appeal has exercised the discretion 491W not to impose the prescribed custodial sentence under (i) section 110 and (ii) section 111 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000; what the reasons in each case were; what sentence was imposed in each case; and if he will make a statement. [146286]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeCurrently maintained statistics do not allow the identification of the occasions where the trial judge decided not to impose the prescribed custodial sentences under sections 110 and 111 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 (formerly sections 3 and 4 of Crime (Sentences) Act 1997) or where the Court of Appeal either upheld such a decision or allowed an appeal against the imposition of such a sentence.
§ Mr. HealdTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on how many occasions(a) the trial judge and (b) the Court of Appeal has exercised the discretion not to impose a life sentence under section 109 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000; what the reasons were in each case; what sentence was imposed in each case; and if he will make a statement. [146285]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeCurrently maintained statistics do not allow the identification of the occasions where the trial judge decided not to impose an automatic life sentence under section 109 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 (formerly section 2 Crime (Sentences) Act 1997) or where the Court of Appeal either upheld such a decision or allowed an appeal against the imposition of such a sentence.
For the hon. Member's information, however, the Court of Appeal gave judgment in the cases of Matthew Offen, Peter McGilliard, Darren McKeown, Christova Okwuegbunam and Stephen Saunders on 9 November 2000. In all the cases challenges were made to the imposition of an automatic life sentence under section 2 of the Crime (Sentences) Act 1997. The court upheld Offen and McKeown's appeals, substituting determinate terms of three years in place of a life sentence. Section 109 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 provides that if the conditions of the section are fulfilled an offender should receive a life sentence unless there are exceptional circumstances relating to either the offences or to the offender which would justify his not doing so. In the opinion of the Court of Appeal there were exceptional circumstances in both cases that made the imposition of an automatic sentence unjustified.