Minister of State for Legal Affairs Damian Gomez said yesterday that Cabinet will review suggestions made by Court of Appeal President Anita Allen urging the government to amend the law which outlines mandatory minimum sentences in certain cases.
"We will discuss it in Cabinet and give it our consideration. I can't anticipate what Cabinet will do or won't do," Gomez told The Nassau Guardian when asked if plans to amend the law were still on the government's agenda.
Gomez said he agrees with Allen's critique of the law.
"I've always taken the position [that] the mandatory minimum sentences were an attempt to encroach on the discretion of judicial institutions," he said.
"Her comments merely vindicate a position which I have held for many years.
"I think that one of our problems today has been that matters that are in the Magistrate's Court have ended elsewhere unnecessarily."
He added: "The other courts, which these matters have gone to have had to deal with matters which really ought not to be before them.
"I'm just one member of Cabinet, but my view may not be shared by others."
On Thursday, Allen indicated that many of the cases involving mandatory minimum sentences have been subject to appeals and have essentially wasted the court's time.
"Significantly, magisterial criminal appeals accounted for over 50 percent of the number of matters disposed of and well over 90 percent of those were appeals against the imposition of the mandatory minimum sentences for drug, firearm and ammunition possession," said Allen at a special sitting of the Court of Appeal to mark the new legal year.
"The sheer number of these appeals, however, places immense pressure on this court. Moreover, it is in my view an injudicious use of judicial time to have three senior justices doing what magistrates could have done if they had the discretion to impose the appropriate sentence in the first place."
Under legislation passed in 2011, people convicted of drug possession with intent to supply or illegal firearm possession face a fixed sentencing range of four to seven years.
Prior to the change in law, magistrates were able to sentence those convicted of such crimes based on their own discretion.
In May 2012, Minister of National Security Dr. Bernard Nottage said the government planned to review the mandatory minimum sentencing laws.

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