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Home Office

Answer

Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is his most recent estimate of the period he intends to set as a time limit between arrest and first appearance in court for a person under 18 years under section 22A(1) of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 as amended by section 41 of the Crime and Disorder Bill. [44348] Mr. Michael: A decision on the level at which the statutory time limits should be set will be taken after piloting and once we have assessed the impact of new measures contained in the Crime and Disorder Bill [Lords] on time taken through the criminal justice system. Our plans for introducing a statutory time limit between arrest and first appearance in court, and for introducing statutory time limits for other stages in proceedings for a person under 18 years, are set out in chapter 10 of the White Paper `No More Excuses--A New Approach To Tackling Youth Crime in England and Wales' (CM3809: November 1997). We intend first to pilot certain of the procedural changes introduced by the Crime and Disorder Bill, in particular provisions in section 46 (powers of magistrates' courts exercisable by single justice) and section 47 (early administrative hearings). Sites for these `Narey' pilot areas were announced in the reply I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth, North (Mr. Rapson) on 3 June 1998, Official Report, column 219. The six areas are: Tyneside; Croydon; Blackburn and Burnley; Northamptonshire; North Staffordshire; and North Wales. Two of these areas--Blackburn and Northamptonshire-- will also operate the final warning scheme and youth offending teams, since these arrangements will have an effect on speed through the system and procedures in young offender cases. We aim to begin the pilots in October this year to run for six months. These will be followed by pilots of statutory time limits which we aim to begin in autumn 1999 and run for 12 months. A decision on the level at which time limits should be set, including the time limit from arrest and the date of first appearance in court, will be made for pilot purposes in the light of the initial `Narey' pilots and for national rollout in the light of the statutory time limit pilots.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

44348; 313 c482-3W

Session

1997-98

Subjects

Criminal proceedings Arrests Administrative delays Pilot schemes Sentencing Young offenders