Sentencing: Northern Ireland

To ask the Solicitor-General on how many occasions sentences handed down in courts in Northern Ireland have been subject to a referral to the Court of Appeal by the Attorney-General on grounds of undue leniency in the last five years; and on how many such occasions the sentence was amended as a result. (304585)

The matter falls to me to answer as the power to make a reference to the Court of Appeal rests with the Attorney-General for Northern Ireland.

The figures requested are as follows:

*Number of offenders with sentence unchanged*
	Number of offenders referred to Court of Appeal	Number of offenders with sentence increased by Court of Appeal	Court found sentence to be unduly lenient	Court found sentence not to be unduly lenient	Number of offenders with reference withdrawn
2005	14	7	5	2	0
2006	6	3	1	1	1
2007	0	0	0	0	0
2008	9	5	2	1	1
2009¹	10	6	2	0	1
¹ One case referred in 2009 awaits hearing

Volume 502: debated on Tuesday 8 December 2009