Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many court cases listed for trial in a Crown Court were (a) cancelled and (b) rescheduled in (i) Lancashire, (ii) Cumbia and (iii) Greater Manchester in the last three years.

The Ministry of Justice publishes information concerning trials which are rescheduled (ineffective) but does not have a measure of trials “cancelled” - rather we publish information concerning trials which are cracked.

A cracked trial is a trial that does not go ahead on the day as an outcome is reached and so does not need to be re-scheduled. This occurs when an acceptable plea is offered by the defendant, or the prosecution offers no evidence against the defendant.

This data regarding trial effectiveness at the Crown Court including cracked and ineffective trials by LCJB area is published in the “Trial effectiveness in the courts” data tool (latest to March 2025). This can be downloaded from the Criminal Court Statistics landing page here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-court-statistics.