Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of defendants at (a) magistrates' courts and (b) Crown Courts changed their plea before trial in the latest year for which figures are available.

Information about the stage in the proceedings at which defendants in the Crown Court entered a plea of guilty, covering the time period Q1 2010 to Q1 2015, is to be found in Table C6 in the Criminal court statistics: January to March 2015 (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-court-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2015). Data for cases in magistrates' courts are not available centrally.