---

Solicitor-General

Answer

Mr. Dominic Grieve: To ask the Solicitor-General (1) what assessment she has made of the impact that the involvement of the Crown Prosecution Service in the decision on whether or not to charge a person with an offence has had on the number of charges brought; and if she will make a statement; [199148] (2) what assessment she has made of the impact on the number of cases listed at magistrates' courts for a first hearing resulting from Crown Prosecution Service involvement in the pre-charging process at police stations. [199149] The Solicitor-General: Crown Prosecution Service records indicate a gradual increase in the number and the proportion of decisions to charge a defendant over recent months. In April 2004, the CPS charged 1,436 defendants; 20.9 per cent. of all charging decisions made during the month. By October 2004, this had risen to 20,083 defendants or 54.7 per cent. of all charging decisions. Over the same period, the number of convictions in cases subject to a pre-charge decision has risen from 2,152 in April 2004 to 7,939 in October 2004. The efficiencies gained through CPS involvement in the decision to charge frees up the police to re-direct their efforts to the investigation and detection of more crime. Furthermore, cases in which the pre-charge decision is to take no further action are gradually replaced by cases that proceed to charge. CPS records include no indication of the number of cases listed at the magistrates' courts. However, they do show a rise in the number of guilty pleas entered at a first hearing in cases subject to a pre-charge decision, from 850 in April 2004 to 2,680 in October 2004. The charging initiative aims to increase the number of charged cases which proceed to a conviction by improving the quality of those cases, and increasing capacity by removing the number of cases which have no realistic prospect of conviction.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

426 c1705W;426 c1709W; 199148;199149

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Arrests Crown Prosecution Service Offenders Police Prosecutions Charging initiative

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

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