PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Youth Courts (30 January 2023)
Question Asked
Asked by:
Janet Daby (Labour)
Answer
There were 8,099 youth outstanding cases in magistrates' courts in England and Wales as at the end of September 2022, the most recent time period available. This includes any case involving a defendant under the age of 18 heard in the magistrates’ courts, not just those heard in the Youth Court. It is not possible to separate out statistics for the latter.
Cases involving young defendants are given priority, irrespective of the Court in which they appear, and youth cases are continually reviewed to ensure that they are progressed as quickly as possible.
At any one time, there will always be outstanding cases - these are not backlogs, they are cases where evidence is being prepared for trial. The table below shows the number of the outstanding youth cases for the period end of September 2017 to end of September 2022. Outstanding youth cases at the magistrates’ court in 2020 were impacted by the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic but have since returned to levels seen prior to the pandemic.
Time period | Outstanding youth cases at Magistrates Courts, England & Wales |
September 2017 | 9,025 |
September 2018 | 8,685 |
September 2019 | 8,472 |
September 2020 | 10,759 |
September 2021 | 7,690 |
September 2022 | 8,099 |
Answered by:
Damian Hinds (Conservative)
7 February 2023
Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.