Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of murderers failed to attend court for their sentencing in the latest period for which data is available.

Information on the number of defendants who failed to attend court for their sentencing for PQ 117604 and 117605 is not centrally recorded in the Court Proceeding Database held by Ministry of Justice and to obtain it would involve a manual interrogation of court records which would result in a disproportionate cost to the department.

Prisoners who are ordered to attend their sentencing hearing and refuse to do so could be charged with a disciplinary offence resulting, for example, in forfeiture of privileges or additional days added to their sentence.