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Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

Before we proceed, perhaps I may pick up on what the noble Lord said about not wishing to criticise the magistrates, which I am sure we are all agreed is very sensible. When he gives further thought to this, will he undertake to take into account the briefing that the Magistrates’ Association has sent us, which I expect he has seen? It says: "““We can see no logical or good reason for this proposal … we feel the present situation is an excellent deterrent with the right to impose immediate custody, but suspend it … We believe that research into SSOs made since April 2005 has not been sufficiently robust yet to show that it is SSOs that have, or will have, a significant impact on prison population””." These are the people at the sharp end, who deal with 95 per cent or 96 per cent of the criminal cases tried each year in this country.