Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, whether the Crown Prosecution Service will publish the sentencing outcomes of defendants convicted in cases flagged under the Joint Enterprise National Monitoring Scheme 2024-25, broken down by (a) ethnicity, (b) sex and (c) age at sentencing.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Attorney General
The CPS holds information on the sentences imposed following convictions in cases included in the Joint Enterprise National Monitoring Scheme 2024–25. As the CPS is not the official record of sentencing the information requested could only be obtained through the manual inspection of individual case files and could therefore be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, pursuant to the Answer of 9 July 2026 to Question 16091, Sentencing: Young Offenders, whether the Crown Prosecution Service holds information on the sentences imposed following convictions for defendants in cases included in the Joint Enterprise National Monitoring Scheme 2024-25.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Attorney General
The CPS holds information on the sentences imposed following convictions in cases included in the Joint Enterprise National Monitoring Scheme 2024–25. However, the information requested could only be obtained through the manual inspection of individual case files and could therefore be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how many charges for Assault on an Emergency Worker were not proceeded with by the CPS in each of the last 5 years.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Attorney General
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) holds management information on offences derived from its Case Management System (CMS) and associated Management Information System (MIS).
CPS offence-level data can be used to report on the number of offences charged and reaching a first hearing at the magistrates’ court. However, this data does not include outcome information for specific offences.
Accordingly, the CPS does not hold centrally retrievable data to identify how many charges for Assault on an Emergency Worker were not proceeded with. To obtain this information would require a manual review of individual case files.
However, to provide context on the volume of cases involved, the table below shows the number of offences for Assault on an Emergency Worker which were charged and reached a first hearing at the magistrates’ court over the last five calendar years under the Criminal Justice Act 1988 and the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018:
Calendar Year | Offences |
2021 | 34,852 |
2022 | 33,073 |
2023 | 34,135 |
2024 | 38,847 |
2025 | 36,074 |
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how many of the cases of charges for assault on emergency workers was the public interest test cited as the reason for discontinuation.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Attorney General
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not hold centrally retrievable data on the reasons for discontinuation at an offence level within its Case Management System (CMS) and associated Management Information System (MIS).
While the CPS applies the Code for Crown Prosecutors, including both the evidential and public interest tests, the specific reasons for decisions are recorded within individual case records rather than in a structured, searchable format.
Accordingly, the CPS is unable to provide the number of cases where the public interest test was cited as the reason for discontinuation in Assault on Emergency Worker cases. To obtain this information would require a manual review of individual case files.
However, to provide context on the volume of cases involved, the table below shows the number of offences for Assault on an Emergency Worker which were charged and reached a first hearing at the magistrates’ court over the last five calendar years under the Criminal Justice Act 1988 and the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018:
Calendar Year | Offences |
2021 | 34,852 |
2022 | 33,073 |
2023 | 34,135 |
2024 | 38,847 |
2025 | 36,074 |
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how many Assault on Emergency Worker prosecutions proceeded where AEW was the only remaining charge.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Attorney General
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) holds management information on offences derived from its Case Management System (CMS) and associated Management Information System (MIS).
CPS offence-level data can be used to report on the number of offences charged and reaching a first hearing at the magistrates’ court. However, this data does not include outcome information for specific offences.
Accordingly, the CPS does not hold centrally retrievable data to identify how many charges for Assault on an Emergency Worker were not proceeded with. To obtain this information would require a manual review of individual case files.
However, to provide context on the volume of cases involved, the table below shows the number of offences for Assault on an Emergency Worker which were charged and reached a first hearing at the magistrates’ court over the last five calendar years under the Criminal Justice Act 1988 and the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018:
Calendar Year | Offences |
2021 | 34,852 |
2022 | 33,073 |
2023 | 34,135 |
2024 | 38,847 |
2025 | 36,074 |
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, if the CPS will publish internal guidance and policy documents relating to charging decisions in Assault on Emergency Worker cases.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Attorney General
The Crown Prosecution Service updated its guidance for prosecuting offences relating to the Assault on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 in June 2025. Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 | The Crown Prosecution Service.
The update ensures prosecutors consider the full range of available offences and adopt a more flexible, case by case approach to selecting the most appropriate charge.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many and what proportion of (a) children and (b) adults prosecuted for (i) homicide, (ii) attempted homicide and (iii) other offences had been assessed under the modern slavery national referral mechanism in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Robert Courts
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not hold data on the number of defendants assessed under the modern slavery National Referral Mechanism (NRM). This information could only be obtained by an examination of CPS case files, which would incur disproportionate cost.
The NRM is the UK framework for identifying and referring potential victims of modern slavery and ensuring they receive the appropriate support. Certain public authorities, including the police, have a statutory duty to refer potential victims to the NRM. Adults must agree to this. The CPS cannot make referrals; it is not a first responder.
Section 45 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 provides for a statutory defence for adult and child victims of modern slavery who are accused of committing criminal offences. The defence does not apply to the most serious crimes such as murder or manslaughter.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many and what proportion of charges that used the threshold test subsequently recorded an application of the full code test in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Robert Courts
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not hold data from which it is possible to cross-reference Threshold Test charging decisions about a defendant with subsequent Full Code Test decisions. This information could only be obtained by an examination of CPS case files, which would incur disproportionate cost.
The Code for Crown Prosecutors is clear that the Threshold Test may only be applied after a rigorous examination of its five conditions. This ensures that it is only applied when necessary and that cases are not charged prematurely. Any decision to charge under the Threshold Test must be kept under review and the Full Code Test must be applied as soon as practicable.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many and what proportion of (a) homicide and (b) attempted homicide cases was the threshold test applied in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Robert Courts
Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) Management Information is available showing the number of pre-charge legal decisions when the Principal Offence Category allocated at the first consultation was homicide and whether the final consultation completed against the suspect involved application of the Threshold Test.
Data can be provided from April 2019 to the end of September 2023 and the tables below show this information for each year and the financial year 2023/24 to date.
Table 1 - Legal Decisions | 2019-2020 | 2020-2021 | 2021-2022 | 2022-2023 | April - September 2023 |
Threshold Test | 840 | 850 | 971 | 1030 | 524 |
% Threshold Test of Legal Decisions | 47.5% | 49.0% | 53.0% | 54.2% | 54.1% |
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Table 2 - Decisions to Charge | 2019-2020 | 2020-2021 | 2021-2022 | 2022-2023 | April - September 2023 |
Threshold Test | 836 | 848 | 968 | 1026 | 523 |
% Threshold Test of Legal Decisions | 59.8% | 58.8% | 62.1% | 64.3% | 65.6% |
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Table 3 - Decisions to NFA/OoCD | 2019-2020 | 2020-2021 | 2021-2022 | 2022-2023 | April - September 2023 |
Threshold Test | 4 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 |
% Threshold Test of Legal Decisions | 1.1% | 0.7% | 1.1% | 1.3% | 0.6% |
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Data Source: CPS Case Management Information System | |||||
Principal Offence Categories comprise a range of offences. These cannot be separated to report suspect outcomes by specific offence.
Legal decisions are to charge, take no further action (NFA), or recommend an out of court disposal (OoCD).
Following the receipt of a file from the police requesting a CPS charging decision, several consultations may take place before the final decision whether to charge or not is taken by the reviewing lawyer. The first consultation may result in a legal decision outcome or in an action plan that needs to be sent to the police for further investigation or additional evidentiary material to allow a charging decision to take place.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many and what proportion of (a) children and (b) adults prosecuted under joint enterprise provisions in the Crown Prosecution Service Joint Enterprise Pilot 2023 for (i) homicide, (ii) attempted homicide and (iii) other offences were assessed under the modern slavery National Referral Mechanism.
Answered by Robert Courts
The methodology of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) Joint Enterprise Pilot 2023 is set out on their website at: www.cps.gov.uk/publication/crown-prosecution-service-joint-enterprise-pilot-2023-data-analysis.
This involved the application of a local ‘flag’ to joint enterprise homicide and attempted homicide cases which were then manually reviewed and certain case features were counted. The number of cases in which the defendant was assessed under the modern slavery National Referral Mechanism was not counted during the pilot and it is not possible to extract further management information from the local ‘flag’ centrally.