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Written question asked by Chris Bryant (Labour) on Wednesday, 14 July 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 19 July 2010. It was answered by Jonathan Djanogly (Conservative) on Thursday, 22 July 2010 on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

Magistrates Courts

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many witnesses and defendants failed to attend court at (a) the Llwynypia magistrates court, (b) the county court in Pontypridd, (c) the magistrates court in Aberdare and (d) the magistrates court in Pontypridd in each of the last five years.
Answer

Information about the number of witnesses and defendants failing to attend the county court in Pontypridd and the magistrates courts is not held centrally, as it is not recorded by court staff electronically as part of their routine daily administrative duties.Furthermore, the information collected does not separately identify cases completed at Llwynypia magistrates court is collected from those at Pontypridd magistrates court.Information on the number of criminal trials at Llwynypia and Pontypridd magistrates courts and Aberdare magistrates court which were either 'ineffective' (does not commence on due date and is re-listed) or 'cracked' (did not commence on the due date and was not listed) due to non-attendance for defendants and witnesses, from 2007-08 to 2009-10, is given in the table as follows. Statistics are not available prior to 2007-08 at a court level.Information about the number of witnesses and defendants failing to attend the county court in Pontypridd is not held centrally.

Non-attendance of defendants and witnesses in criminal trials recorded in the magistrates courts, April 2007-09
Magistrates courts Number of trials where the defendant is absent¹ Percentage of the cases where the defendant is absent Number of trials where the witness is absent² Percentage of the cases where the witness is absent Total number of trials
Aberdare
2007-08 6 3 4 2 238
2008-09 2 1 6 3 198
2009-10 4 2 4 2 191
Pontypridd³
2007-08 6 1 21 4 579
2008-09 14 3 15 3 484
2009-10 13 3 24 5 504
¹ Witnesses are defined as both professional, police and other witnesses for both the defence and prosecution. ² Prior to April 2007, data were collected from different administrative systems and are not directly comparable with those given in the table. For this reason, the table shows the figures from 2007-08 to 2009-10 only. ³ The figures correspond to trials only and exclude all non-attendance when trials did not occur. Source: Trials, HM courts service Performance Database (OPT).

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
9562; 514 c466W
Session
2010-12
Subjects
Magistrates' courts Mid Glamorgan
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk