PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Magistrates' Courts (10 July 2014)

To ask the Attorney General, how many and what proportion of cases at the magistrates' court in (a) 2013-14 and (b) each of the previous five financial years were subject to a (i) decision by the prosecution to discontinue the case, (ii) decision in committal proceedings to discharge the defendant, (iii) decision by the magistrate to dismiss the case on grounds of no case to answer and (iv) dismissal after trial.

Asked by:
Emily Thornberry (Labour)

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) maintains a central record of the outcomes of prosecutions, on a defendant basis, at magistrates' courts. Prosecution outcomes comprise convictions; guilty pleas, convictions after trial and cases proved in the absence of the defendant. Unsuccessful outcomes represent all other outcomes and include prosecutions dropped (discontinuances, withdrawals, prosecutions stayed and no evidence offered), discharged committals, dismissals and administrative finalisations.

The table below shows the volume and proportion of defendants whose proceedings were discontinued by way of a written notice under Section 23 of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985, discharged at committal, dismissed no case to answer by magistrates and dismissed after a full trial, in each of the last six years.

	2008-2009	2009-2010	2010-2011	2011-2012	2012-2013	2013-2014
(i) Discontinued	30,226	30,665	32,532	30,217	26,600	23,083
% Discontinued	3.3%	3.5%	3.9%	3.8%	3.8%	3.6%
(ii) Discharged Committal	1,984	2,252	1,690	1,308	1,270	308
% Discharged Committal	0.2%	0.3%	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%
(iii) Dismissed No Case To Answer	1,707	1,605	1,525	1,362	1,224	1,433
% Dismissed No Case to Answer	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%
(iv) Dismissed After Full Trial	18,682	20,322	19,517	17,681	17,168	17,805
% Dismissed After Full Trial	2.0%	2.3%	2.3%	2.2%	2.5%	2.8%
TOTAL PROSECUTED	928,708	872,585	840,983	787,547	700,423	633,306

Data Source: CPS Case Management Information System

Answered by:
Sir Jeremy Wright (Conservative)
16 July 2014