Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average length of time is from first appearance to trial in magistrates' courts in (a) all cases and (b) cases that proceed at the first trial hearing; and what proportion of all trial cases fall into each such category.

In 2015, of defendants whose cases were completed in the magistrates’ courts, 14% had a date of trial recorded in centrally held data. Of those cases with a trial date recorded, the mean duration from date of first listing to date of trial was 67 days and the median duration was 61 days.

HMCTS does not separately collate timeliness of trials which are effective at their first trial hearing and is unable to provide that information.