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.

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.

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.