Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) Crown court and (b) Magistrates court trials in each of the last three years have been ineffective due to (i) the prosecution not being ready, (ii) prosecution witness being absent, (iii) prosecution failing to disclose unused material, (iv) prosecution advocate being engaged in another trial and (v) prosecution advocate failing to attend.

The Ministry of Justice has published information on trial effectiveness at the criminal courts (including ineffective trials by reason and court type), up to December 2021, in the ‘Trial effectiveness at the criminal courts tool’ available at the link below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-court-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2021.