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Lord Chancellors Dept

Answer

Tim Loughton: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many court cases failed to take place in (a) 1997-98 and (b) 2002-03 because (i) the accused and (ii) witnesses failed to turn up; and what action he has taken to combat failure of court cases because of non-attendance of parties. [96005] Yvette Cooper: In 1997-98 56,116 cases were listed for trial in the Crown Court of which 1,967 (3.50 per cent.) failed to take place due to the accused, and 3,848 (6.85 per cent.) due to the witness(es), failing to attend. Between April and September 2002 (the most recent data currently available) 27,427 cases were listed for trial in the Crown Court. 1,024 (3.73 per cent.) failed to take place due to the accused, and 1,717 (6.26 per cent.) due to the witness(es), failing to attend. Data on why cases fail has only been collected nationally by magistrates' courts from 1 April 2002. For the six month period April to September 2002 81,437 trials were listed for trial in the magistrates' court, of which 6,780 (8.32 per cent.) failed to take place due to the accused, and 2,875 (3.53 per cent.) due to the witness(es), failing to attend. Action is being taken across Criminal Justice Agencies to reduce the failure of court cases due to non attendance of witnesses, in particular the use of video links for vulnerable and intimidated witnesses, and the introduction of Victim Support into all courts. My Department is currently undertaking a Case Preparation Project with CIS partners which includes work on identifying reasons why defendants and witnesses fail to turn up for hearings

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

96005; 399 c979-80W;399 c975-6W

Session

2002-03

Subjects

Administration of justice Attendance Witnesses Trials

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk