Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, in (a) how many and (b) what proportion of cases involving common assault was a defendant found guilty or pleaded guilty after being remanded in custody prior to their trial in each year since 2013.

Information on the number of defendants dealt with for common assault and their remand status at different points of court proceedings can be found in the “Remands: Magistrates’ Court data tool” and the “Remands: Crown Court data tool” at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-december-2018

To obtain the requested data, carry out the following steps:

• In both tools filter ‘Offence’ for: “105 Common assault and battery”
• In both tools filter ‘Remand status’ as required – for remand status prior to trial in the magistrates’ court, use the “Remand status with Police” variable
• In both tools filter ‘Convicted / not convicted’ as required
• In both tolls filter ‘Sentenced / not sentenced’ as required
• In the Crown Court tool filter ‘Plea’ as required (plea is only available at Crown Court)
• In both tools filter ‘Outcome’ for “Immediate custody” as required
• For calculations for defendants dealt with entirely at the magistrates’ court, filter ‘Outcome’ to exclude the following: “Failure to appear”, “Committed for trial” and “Committed for sentence”
• For calculations for defendants dealt with at the Crown Court, filter ‘Outcome’ to exclude: “Failure to appear”.