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 an effort 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.