Domestic Abuse: Homicide
(asked on 14th April 2023) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of domestic homicide cases used the partial defences of diminished responsibility and loss of control in each of the last 10 years for which data is available.
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on prosecutions and convictions involving manslaughter and manslaughter due to diminished responsibility in the “Outcomes by Offence” tool as part of the Criminal Justice System Statistics publication.
- For year ending June 2022 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1135333/outcomes-by-offence-june-2022-revised-2.xlsx
- For year ending December 2017 to 2021 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1113400/outcomes-by-offence-tool-2021-revised-2.xlsx
- For year ending December 2013 – 2016 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1063892/HO-code-tool-principal-offence-2020-revised.xlsx
In the “Outcomes by Offences” pivot tool, select the `Prosecutions and Convictions’ page, and then select “00405” (manslaughter due to diminished responsibility) and “00401” (manslaughter) from the HO offence code filter. A defendant, committed by the magistrates’ court to the Crown Court, may not complete both court processes in the same year. Each stage would therefore be counted by the particular court in the year where those proceedings took place or completed, meaning that in any given year, convictions may exceed prosecutions and sentences may not equate to the number of convictions. In addition, defendants who appear before both courts may also be convicted of a different offence at the Crown Court to that counted during proceedings in the magistrates’ court, where the offence may have changed after committal to the Crown Court.
The Ministry of Justice does not collate information separately on whether a prosecution also concerns one of domestic homicide. Data is unavailable on the partial defence of loss of control.