To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many times the maximum sentence was awarded for a crime in (a) Crown courts and (b) magistrates’ courts in the last year for which figures are available; and what proportion of sentences given in each type of court each figure represents. (106975)

The information requested, relating to England and Wales for 2005, is as follows:

At the Crown court, 1,114 maximum custodial sentences were imposed on persons for their principal offences, 2.5 per cent. of all custodial sentences passed at that court. These figures include mandatory life sentences for murder and indeterminate sentences for public protection (the latter in addition to the normal maximum sentence for the offences in question).

At magistrates courts, 1,132 persons were given the maximum sentence of immediate custody for their principal offences (this figure excludes sentences of six months custody imposed for triable-either-way offences, given that any longer deemed necessary would have involved a committal to the Crown court). This figure represents 2.0 per cent. of all persons sentenced to immediate custody at magistrates courts.

Although care is taken in collating and analysing the returns used to compile these figures, the data are of necessity subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system. Consequently, although figures are shown to the last digit in order to provide a comprehensive record of the information collected, they are not necessarily accurate to the last digit shown.