Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

But the point is that we are talking about 30,000 magistrates and their individual decisions. Clearly, there will be circumstances in which some of the offenders will end up in custody even without the suspended sentence order. There is no argument about that. Equally, we contend that removing this option will lead to an overall reduction in the numbers. The community sentencing structure allows for flexibility. I come back to the noble Lord’s point; perhaps I may quote the speech by the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chief Justice back to him, as it clearly said that, within the context of the custody threshold, there is a wide borderline area where it is open to the court to choose between sending the offender to prison or dealing with him in some other way. It is not a simple black or white issue, which is why we need to take this action.