Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many requests to apply for Criminal Behaviour Orders (CBOs) the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) received in each year from 2014-15; and on how many of those occasions the CPS subsequently decided (a) to and (b) not to apply for the CBO through the courts.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not maintain a central record of the number of requests to apply for Criminal Behaviour Orders received or any subsequent applications to courts for orders to be made. This information could only be obtained by examining CPS case files, which would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many cases of alleged breaches of Injunctions to Prevent Nuisance and Annoyance have been logged on the Crown Prosecution Service’s case management system in each year since 2014-15; how many of those cases have been heard in court; how many of those litigants have been found to be in contempt of court; and how many of those litigants have been given the maximum possible prison sentence for that offence.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The Crown Prosecution Service does not hold the information requested. Section 1 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 gives a court power to grant a civil injunction for anti-social behaviour. A breach of a civil injunction is not a criminal offence.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many times the Crown Prosecution Service logged concerns about alleged breaches of (a) Anti-Social Behaviour Orders on Conviction, (b) other Anti-Social Behaviour Orders and (c) Criminal Behaviour Orders on its case management system in each year from 2004-05; how many of those cases led to a (i) prosecution and (ii) conviction; and how many of those convictions resulted in a maximum tariff custodial sentence for the respective order.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not maintain a central record of the number of concerns logged on its Case Management System (CMS) about alleged breaches of Anti-Social Behaviour or Criminal Behaviour Orders.
While no central record is collated showing the number of concerns logged about compliance with court orders, a central record of the number of breaches of Criminal Behaviour Orders and Anti-Social Behaviour Orders prosecuted at magistrates’ courts is held.
A breach of a Criminal Behaviour Order is prosecuted by way of Section 30 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, while breaches of an Anti-Social Behaviour Order or interim Anti-Social Behaviour Order were prosecuted by way of Section 1(10)/Section 1D and 1(10) of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998.
The table below shows the volumes of these breach offences, in which a prosecution commenced, in each year since 2004-05.
- | Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 { 30(1) and (2) } (Breach of a CBO) | Crime and Disorder Act 1998 { 1(10) } (Breach of an ASBO) | Crime and Disorder Act 1998 { 1D and 1(10) } (Breach of an interim ASBO) |
2004-2005 | 0 | 8,508 | 0 |
2005-2006 | 0 | 13,536 | 108 |
2006-2007 | 0 | 13,659 | 374 |
2007-2008 | 0 | 12,998 | 487 |
2008-2009 | 0 | 11,413 | 455 |
2009-2010 | 0 | 10,558 | 411 |
2010-2011 | 0 | 9,739 | 501 |
2011-2012 | 0 | 8,439 | 287 |
2012-2013 | 0 | 7,575 | 212 |
2013-2014 | 0 | 7,201 | 278 |
2014-2015 | 137 | 6,913 | 193 |
2015-2016 | 2,144 | 4,480 | 79 |
2016-2017 | 4,323 | 1,925 | 11 |
Data Source: CPS Management Information System | |||
There is no indication of the number of individual defendants prosecuted for these offences or the final outcome of the prosecution proceeding or if the charged offence was the substantive charge at the time of finalisation. It is often the case that defendants will be prosecuted for more than one offence in the same set of proceedings.
The official statistics relating to sentencing on conviction, including whether a term of imprisonment was imposed, are maintained by the Ministry of Justice
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, for what reasons the number of offences recorded for 2016-17 in the Answer of 28 November 2017 to Question 112584 differ from the number of summary convictions recorded in 2016 in the Answer of 13 November 2017 to Question 112585.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
This question relates to the differences in recording of data under section 76 of the Serious Crime Act 2015.
The data reported by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in the answer to Question 112584 differs from that provided by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in the response to Question 112585 in that:
CPS data is for the financial year; MoJ data for the calendar year.
CPS data includes all offences which have been commenced and have reached a first hearing in Magistrates’ Courts. A defendant may be charged with more than one offence. No central record is kept as to the outcome of the proceedings under s76 of the Serious Crime Act 2015.
In contrast, MoJ record the outcome of the proceedings by defendant and for whom this offence was the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed.
MoJ data covers cases completed in Magistrates’ Court in 2016, and therefore includes both completed and live cases in the Crown Court.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, pursuant to the Answer of 28 November 2017 to Question 112584, on domestic violence: prosecutions, what proportion of the offences recorded in 2016-17 led to summary convictions.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not maintain a record of offences which resulted in a summary conviction. However, in 2016/17, there were 70,853 convictions flagged as domestic abuse.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many charges the Crown Prosecution Service has brought against people under section 76 of the Serious Crime Act 2015 for alleged controlling or coercive behaviour in an intimate or family relationship in each year since that section of that Act came into force.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not collect data on defendants prosecuted by specific offence. However, the table below shows the number of offences recorded in the magistrates' courts for the offence of controlling or coercive behaviour since its implementation on 29 December 2015. This figure relates to the number of offences and not the number of individual defendants.
2015-2016 | 2016-2017 |
5 | 309 |
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many cases of alleged rape under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 were referred to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) by police in each year since 2009-10; on how many occasions the CPS pressed charges for those cases in each of those years; and what the (a) average, (b) shortest and (c) longest period of time between referral and charging was for cases which (i) did and (ii) did not lead to CPS charges in each of those years.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The table below shows the volume and proportion of charged suspects in cases flagged as rape during each of the last seven available years.
| Volume | % | Total no of cases referred |
2009 - 10 | 3,232 | 42.1% | 7,683 |
2010 - 11 | 3,387 | 41.7% | 8,130 |
2011 - 12 | 3,213 | 47.1% | 6,822 |
2012 - 13 | 2,889 | 53.5% | 5,404 |
2013 - 14 | 3,621 | 61.9% | 5,850 |
2014 - 15 | 3,648 | 59.2% | 6,159 |
2015 - 16 | 3,910 | 57.0% | 6,855 |
(Data Source: CPS Case Management Information System) | |||
The CPS monitoring of cases involving offences of rape involves the application of a rape ‘flag’ to applicable cases that are recorded on the CPS’ electronic Case Management System (CMS). The CPS definition of rape covers any case where the following offences were considered pre-charge or were subsequently charged:
No separate record of the shortest or longest time from the initial request from the police to the decision to charge is maintained on the CMS, nor is any record collated showing the average number of days taken when the outcome of the charging decision is not to prosecute or any other outcome.
Rape and serious sexual offences (RASSO) investigations can be highly complex in nature and typically involve the review of a large quantity of evidence. In the vast majority of cases suspects are on police bail prior to a charging decision being made by the CPS and where the police seek a charging decision in such circumstances the CPS cannot authorise charges until the Full Code Test set out in the Code is met. The timeliness of a charging decision is determined by two key factors: how quickly the police can complete the necessary enquiries; and how quickly the CPS can then review the evidence provided by the police and finalise the charging decision.
The CPS recognises the distress caused to both complainants and defendants by delays in the charging process and we are committed to improving the timeliness of charging decisions. One of the most significant steps that the CPS has taken in this regard has been to substantially increase the resourcing allocated to the specialist RASSO units around the country which prosecute these cases. Between July 2015 and May 2017 the number of RASSO prosecutors available to make charging decisions rose from 138 to 197. This increased resourcing has contributed to an improvement in the timeliness of charging decisions. The number of RASSO cases awaiting CPS charging advice for between 28 days and 3 months fell by over 46% between March 2016 and March 2017 from 489 to 263 cases. Latest provisional data for July indicates the numbers have fallen still further to less than 130.
The CPS is committed to achieving further improvements in timeliness and in May 2017 the RASSO Service Standards were launched. These Standards set out best practice for the management of pre-charge RASSO bail cases between CPS areas and their local police partners. The Standards provide a commitment on the part of the CPS to provide a review of a case within 28 days of submission from the police and sets out an escalation procedure for police colleagues to follow when this target is not met. The Standards also require CPS staff to be actively involved in securing updates from investigating officers where there are significant delays in the police investigation of RASSO cases.