Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, pursuant to the Answer of 1 September 2014, Official Report, column 32W, on Crown Courts, what the reasons were for the (a) Crown Prosecution Service offering no evidence and (b) judge ordering acquittals in each of the cases in the homicide category.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) case outcome records include an allocation of a reason for cases not resulting in a conviction, including the numbers where the judge ordered an acquittal. Judge ordered acquittals comprise cases discontinued, where no evidence was offered, the indictment was stayed or all charges were left to lie on file.

Further to the Answer provided on 1 September 2014, published in Hansard, Official Report, column 32W, on Crown Courts, the number of defendants, by reason, in the ‘Homicide’ category with an outcome of ‘Offer no Evidence’ or ‘Judge Ordered Acquittal’, during 2013-14 is shown in the attached table. The data represent case outcomes recorded by the 13 regional Areas of the Crown Prosecution Service