Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many criminal cases were withdrawn due to (a) court delays and (b) case backlogs in Wales in the latest period for which data is available.

We do not collect data on the reasons why a case is dropped by the prosecution, and it is therefore not possible to attribute dropped cases to court delays. There are a number of reasons why a case may be dropped, including if there is a lack of evidence or if the prosecution is no longer in the public interest.

A case is considered dropped when the prosecution notifies the court that they wish to discontinue proceedings before the indictment has been lodged – this does not require a court hearing and the case is closed administratively. These cases will have a formal verdict of not guilty.