Member

We discussed the presumption on suspending short sentences and voted on a very similar amendment during the passage of the Sentencing Bill. The Government have been clear that we are not abolishing short sentences. Public protection is our main priority and we will make sure that the most dangerous offenders are put where they belong: behind bars. Judges completely understand this. I recognise, of course, that prison sentences, even if short, can be critical to safeguarding victims of domestic abuse or other forms of violence against women and girls, and that is why, as we have explained from this Dispatch Box on many occasions, courts will still have full discretion to impose immediate custody in any case involving significant risk of physical or psychological harm to an individual; for example, to protect an at-risk domestic abuse victim where an offender has committed an offence involving, or closely connected to, breach of a court order, including violence against women and girls-related protective orders, or in exceptional circumstances.