Asked by: James Berry (Conservative - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases in Crown and magistrates' courts in London were (a) dropped and (b) delayed in each of the last two years for which data is available; and what caused each such occurrence.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
HMCTS collates data on the reasons for cracked and ineffective trials. A cracked trial is one that does not go ahead on the day of trial and does not require relisting, usually because the defendant pleads guilty or the prosecution withdraw or end the case. An ineffective trial is one that does not go ahead on the day and requires relisting at a later date. Data on cracked and ineffective trials and the reasons for them are published here:
The information is presented by Court and by Local Criminal Justice Board (LCJB). Sorting Column D will present the data appropriately grouped. London Crown Courts are under London Crown Courts LCJB, and London Magistrates Courts under Central London, East London, North East London, North London, North West London, South East London, South London, South West London and West London LCJBs.
Discontinued trials also include those ended by the prosecution at an earlier stage. Reasons for adjourning prior to the start of a trial are not collated. The number of discontinuances in London can be found in the table below:
| 2013 – 14 | 2014 – 15 |
Crown Court | 3,059 | 3,624 |
Magistrates’ Court | 43,168 | 34,815 |
These data are taken from a case management information system and are not subject to the same level of checks as official statistics. Data provided has been extracted specifically to answer this question and has not been cross-referenced with case files.