Magistrates ‘incredibly disappointed’ as sentencing powers scaled back

Powers had been doubled less than a year ago to tackle backlog in courts and cut prison overcrowding

Sentencing powers for magistrates have been scaled back less than a year after they were doubled in a bid to tackle the courts backlog.

In May, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) announced magistrates in England and Wales would be able to hand out jail sentences of up to a year for a single offence – up from the previous maximum of six months – as part of efforts to deal with the number of criminal cases waiting to be heard.