To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many trials on indictment in Northern Ireland have been retrials in each of the last five years; and of those retrials how many have been (a) second and (b) third re-trials.

A retrial will only take place when a jury has been unable to reach a verdict or a retrial has been ordered by the Court of Appeal.

Information on the number of retrials in Northern Ireland was not centrally recorded prior to the introduction of a new IT system in October 2006. Consequently, it is not possible to provide the requested information prior to this date without incurring disproportionate cost.

For Crown court cases dealt with in Northern Ireland between October 2006 and September 2007, the total number of retrials were four, of which two were second retrials.