Justice written question – answered at on 4 September 2013.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice
(1) how many trials have been adjourned more than once because no judge was available at Leicester Crown court in each of the last five years;
(2) how many murder trials have been adjourned because no judge was available at Leicester Crown court in each of the last five years;
(3) how many sexual assault trials have been adjourned because no judge was available at Leicester Crown court in each of the last five years;
(4) how many Crown court trials have been adjourned in each of the last five years due to no judge being available with less than 24 hours' notice, in each court;
(5) how many Crown court rape trials have been adjourned in each of the last five years due to no judge being available, in each court;
(6) how many Crown court sexual assault trials have been adjourned in each of the last five years due to no judge being available, in each court;
(7) how many Crown court murder trials have been adjourned in each of the last five years due to no judge being available, in each court;
(8) how many Crown court trials at each court have been adjourned more than once because of no judge being available in each of the last five years;
(9) how many trials at Leicester Crown court have been adjourned in each of the last five years because of no judge being available; and how many such trials were adjourned with less than 24 hours notice;
(10) how many rape trials at Leicester Crown court have been adjourned because of no judge being available in each of the last five years.
The number of trial hearings which are considered ineffective due to ‘judge/magistrates availability’ is published by court as part of the National Statistics publication 'Court Statistics Quarterly'.
The proportion of trials which are ineffective at the Crown court has remained stable between 2007 and 2012 at around 13%. The proportion of effective trials have increased since Q4 2010 (44%) to Q1 2013 (51%).
We are overhauling the Criminal Justice System to make the court process swifter and more efficient and recently launched our 'CJS Strategy and Action Plan' which includes steps to address the number of cracked and ineffective trials including increasing digital working and improved case management of files.
The number of trials is not currently collated by offence—the counting basis is such that for any hearing there may be multiple defendants appearing to be tried for multiple offences.
The number of trials 'which have been adjourned more than once' is not currently collated—it is not possible to reliably track hearings listed by case using the current trial hearing reporting system.
The average length of time taken from offence to completion for cases in the Crown court is published quarterly by court as part of the National Statistics publication 'Court Statistics Quarterly'.
Published timeliness totals relate to all case outcomes (eg those acquitted as well as found guilty—it is not possible to discern the timeliness of trial only Crown court cases from this data.
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