MANDATORY FIVE YEAR PRISON SENTENCES

That this House welcomes the Government's ending of the End of Custody Licence Scheme so that prisoners convicted of crimes will now serve the sentence of the courts, but considers that this scheme might not have been necessary if mandatory sentencing for administrative crimes such as possession of a prohibited firearm had been removed; recognises the inherent unfairness of mandatory sentences where no danger to the public exists, like that of two otherwise law-abiding constituents of the hon. Member for Clwyd South who were sentenced in this way and who, both in their late fifties, had no criminal record and who had formerly for many years been considered legal safe owners of firearms, were no danger to the public, but who were incarcerated unnecessarily at a time when the prison population was at a record high; calls on the Government to repeal this law, which has had little or no effect on illegal firearm use, and to allow the courts to exercise their judgement as to whether a custodial sentence is appropriate for public safety.