Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, pursuant to the Answer of 22 October 2015 to Question 12365, what savings have resulted from the police-led prosecution initiative in each year since 2012-13.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The police-led prosecution initiative has led to a significant reduction in motoring offences prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in magistrate courts, as the following figures indicate:
Motoring offence cases finalised in the Magistrates Court
2012-13: 229,875
2013-14: 171,517
2014-15: 112,955
While the reduction has led to a fall in expenditure on these low-level cases, the overall effect on CPS budgets has been cost-neutral. A high proportion of these cases are dealt with as summary first-time guilty pleas, in which the Court requires the defendant to pay the prosecution costs as part of any financial penalty. Therefore, whilst the CPS has benefitted from a reduction in expenditure, it has foregone the receipt of cost awards that are routinely made in motoring offence cases, as these awards are now payable to the police.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what estimate he has made of the amount of expected underspend for his office against departmental expenditure limits in 2015-16.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The Departmental Expenditure Limit for HM Procurator General and Treasury Solicitor includes the Government Legal Department (GLD), the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) and HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI). The estimated underspend against the Resource Departmental Expenditure Limit is £2.69m. Total expenditure is estimated to be £190m.
GLD sets its fees and fee rates at the beginning of the year with the aim of achieving full cost recovery and in line with HM Treasury guidance Managing Public Money. In setting the fees and fee rate judgements about volumes of work, the impact of inflation, and cost are made and as a result it is normal for there to be a variance.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, pursuant to the Answer of 21 October 2015 to Question 11888, for what reason the (a) prosecution cost per defendant and (b) overall spend per completed case has increased since 2010-11.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The increase in (a) average prosecution cost per defendant and (b) overall spend per completed case reflects the significant change in the caseload mix since 2010-11.
For example, the prosecution of low level traffic offences has been transferred to the police since 2010-11, leading to a fall of 61.1% in motoring cases. A rising proportion of the CPS workload is now geared towards larger and more complex cases, including non-recent sexual abuse cases.
The average costs are also unadjusted for inflation. If average costs for each prior year were all restated in terms of 2014-15 prices, then they would all be increased accordingly.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, pursuant to the Answer of 15 October 2015 to Question 11456, whether any additional blockbuster funding has been requested by the Serious Fraud Office for 2015-16; and what assessment he has made of the likelihood of that office making further requests for additional blockbuster funding in the remainder of this financial year.
Answered by Robert Buckland
As I explained in my answer on 15 October, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) receives additional funding as part of the Main and Supplementary Estimates processes. The SFO received £10m of additional funding through the 2015-16 Main Estimates process.
The Supplementary Estimates process for 2015-16 has not concluded. The SFO does expect to request additional funding as part of this process and details will be published at the appropriate time.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many early guilty pleas there were in the Crown Court in each year from 2010-11; and what proportion of total pleas they represented in each such year.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) maintains a central electronic record of the numbers of defendants and the outcome of prosecution proceedings at the Crown Court on its Case Management System. An automated facility to collate data showing the number of early guilty pleas was developed and implemented across the Service during 2013. Complete records are therefore only available from April 2014.
The table below represents the number of finalised defendants entering early guilty pleas and shows these as a proportion of all guilty pleas at the Crown Court during 2014-15.
2014-2015 | ||
Early Guilty Plea | 23,589 | |
% EGP of all Guilty Pleas | 32.5% | |
Total Guilty Pleas | 72,527 | |
Data Source: CPS Case Management Information System | ||
The total guilty plea volumes in the table above are inclusive of cases where a defendant has entered mixed guilty and not guilty pleas.
The second table shows the number of early guilty pleas as a proportion of all finalised prosecution outcomes at the Crown Court during the same period.
2014-2015 | ||
Early Guilty Plea | 23,589 | |
% EGP of all Prosecutions | 23.4% | |
Total Prosecutions | 100,865 | |
Data Source: CPS Case Management Information System | ||
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many exit packages the Crown Prosecution Service has agreed with a value of more than £100,000 since 2010-11; and what the total cost of such packages was to the public purse.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The information requested is contained in the following table.
Year | Number of Exit Packages in Excess of £100,000 | Value of Exit Packages Per Year |
May 2010 – 2011 | 27 | £4,463,413 |
2011 – 2012 | 38 | £4,466,510 |
2012 – 2013 | 29 | £3.494,266 |
2013 – 2014 | 35 | £4,492,789 |
2014 - 2015 | 24 | £2,991,809 |
2015 - 2016 | none | |
Total | 153 | £19,908,787 |
Note:
Data source is the CPS Annual Report for years 2010/11 to 2014/15. Data source for 2015/16 was taken from the CPS VER and finance database and is accurate as at 16/10/15.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what assessment he has made of the effect of the criminal courts charge on the reduction in costs awarded to the Crown Prosecution Service under the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 as a result of (a) magistrates and (b) judges using their discretion to lower the level of costs awarded.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The criminal court charge imposed a non-discretionary charge on all adult offenders convicted for offences committed on or after 13 April 2015 and is imposed separately from other financial considerations and orders the court may make. It is premature to fully appreciate the implications of the charge on the criminal justice system.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not maintain data on the value of costs awarded to the CPS but does have data on the value of costs recovered following the award of costs. The value of costs recovered and paid to CPS, following the award of costs under the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985, in quarter 1 2015-16 was about £10.7m, in line with expectations.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what estimate he has made of the costs awarded to the Crown Prosecution Service under the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 in (a) each financial year since 2010 and (b) 2015-16 to date.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not maintain data on the value of costs awarded to the CPS but does have data on the value of costs recovered following the award of costs.
A table showing the value of costs recovered and paid to the CPS, following the award of costs under the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985, in (a) each financial year since 2010 and (b) 2015-16 to date is presented below.
2015/16 | 2014/15 | 2013/14 | 2012/13 | 2011/12 | 2010/11 | 2009/10 | ||
(Qtr 1) | ||||||||
Costs recovered (£M) | 10.7 | 35.3 | 37.7 | 39.6 | 42.3 | 44.6 | 40.6 | |
The value of costs recovered has reduced in total but has increased in terms of the average cost recovered per defendant since 2010/11. The total CPS caseload has also reduced since 2010. This reduction in CPS caseload is due, in part, to the transfer of prosecutions from the CPS to the police as part of the police led prosecution initiative.
Notes: The figures in the table are compiled from returns sent to the CPS by HM Courts and Tribunals Service. The amount reported for 2015/16 reflects the first quarter’s returns only. Returns for the second quarter are not yet available.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what estimate he has made of the savings to the public purse from early guilty pleas in the Crown Court in each year since 2010-11.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The Early Guilty Plea Scheme aims to reduce delays and unnecessary paper work and increases productivity for all Criminal Justice System partners.
No data is collected on the total savings to the public purse by a defendant entering an early guilty plea.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what the Crown Prosecution Service's success rate was in cases which have gone to trial in (a) Magistrates' Courts and (b) Crown Courts in each year between 2010-11 and 2014-15.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) maintains a central record of the outcomes of prosecutions, on a defendant basis, at magistrates’ courts and at the Crown Court. Cases adjourned for trial, or contested proceedings, comprise convictions after trial and acquittals or dismissals after trial.
The table below shows the proportion of contested proceedings resulting in a conviction after trial, at magistrates’ courts and at the Crown Court for each of the last five years.
Conviction after Contest Rate | ||
(a) Magistrates' Court | (b) Crown Court | |
2010-2011 | 65.0% | 56.7% |
2011-2012 | 66.3% | 59.7% |
2012-2013 | 64.4% | 60.1% |
2013-2014 | 62.8% | 60.4% |
2014-2015 | 61.0% | 56.9% |
Data Source: CPS Management Information System | ||
The figures in the table above are inclusive of cases where a defendant has entered mixed guilty and not guilty pleas. These pleas are not acceptable to the Crown and the case proceeds to trial.