The courts are, subject only to the Constitution and the law, independent in the exercise of their judicial functions and I, as a member of the Executive, am precluded from intervening directly.
Part II of the Criminal Justice Act, 1999, provides in section 4 for the creation of a new offence related to the possession of drugs with a value of £10,000 or more for the purpose of sale or supply. It provides in section 5 that the court shall, in imposing sentence, specify a minimum period of imprisonment to be served of not less than ten years upon conviction for the offence. Section 5 also provides, however, that a court is entitled to depart from the imposition of the minimum sentence where there are exceptional and specific circumstances relating to the offence or the person convicted of the offence which would make it unjust in all the circumstances to impose the minimum ten year sentence. Factors to which the court may have regard in this respect include whether the person pleaded guilty, and, if so, the stage at which the person indicated the intention to plead guilty and the circumstances in which the indication was given, and whether the person materially assisted the investigation of the offence.
Part II of the Act has been in force only since 26 May last year. I will, however, continue to monitor the operation of these provisions.