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Defendants

Mr. Beith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many, and what percentage of, criminal prosecutions were completed in (a) magistrates' courts, and (b) higher courts, in each of the last five years for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. [86122]

Mr. Boateng: Information taken from the Home Office Court Proceedings Database is given in the table.

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Number and percentage(3) of defendants proceeded against for all offences where case was completed by type of court, England and Wales, 1993-97

		Thousand and percentage
Year	Defendants where proceedings completed in magistrates' courts (4)	Defendants tried in the Crown Court
1993
Number	1,870.3	83.1
Percentage	96	4
1994
Number	1,858.5	85.9
Percentage	96	4
1995
Number	1,757.3	89.0
Percentage	95	5
1996
Number	1,838.2	85.9
Percentage	96	4
1997
Number	1,767.7	91.3
Percentage	95	5

(3) Rates as a proportion of those cases completed at both magistrates' courts and the Crown Court.

(4) Excluding defendants committed for trial.

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Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many indictable offences have been dealt with by either magistrates courts or the Crown Court serving (a) Croydon, (b) Gloucester and (c) Liverpool since 30 September 1998. [85763]

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Mr. Boateng: Information taken from the Home Office Court Proceedings Database is given in the tables.

Table A: Number of defendants proceeded against for indictable offences at Croydon, Gloucester and Liverpool magistrates' courts, October-December 1998 (5)

Magistrates' courts	Number proceeded against
(a) Croydon	728
(b) Gloucester	413
(c) Liverpool	1,912

Table B: Number of defendants tried for indictable offences at Croydon, Gloucester and Liverpool Crown Court Centres, October-December 1998(5), January-March 1999 (5)

Crown Court Centres	Period	Total tried
(a) Croydon	October-December 1998 January-March 1999	315 309
(b) Gloucester	October-December 1998 January-March 1999	78 92
(c) Liverpool	October-December 1998 January-March 1999	831 783

(5) Provisional

Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many offenders have been convicted of offences involving the supply or possession of drugs in either the magistrates court or the relevant Crown Court serving (a) Liverpool, (b) Croydon and (c) Gloucester since 30 September 1998. [85768]

Mr. Boateng: Information taken from the Home Office Court Proceedings Database is given in the table.

11 Jun 1999 : Column: 427

Number of persons convicted of offences involving the supply or possession of drugs at (a) Liverpool, (b) Croydon and (c) Gloucester magistrates' courts and Crown Court Centres by type of offence, October-December 1998 (6), January-March 1999 (6)

Court	Period	Possession of a controlled drug	Supply of a controlled drug	Possession with intent to supply a controlled drug
Magistrates' courts
(a) Liverpool	October-December 1998	240	18	27
(b) Croydon	October-December 1998	78	2	8
(c) Gloucester	October-December 1998	28	1	2
Crown Court
(a) Liverpool	October-December 1998	22	26	28
	January-March 1999	18	44	28
(b) Croydon	October-December 1998	5	6	15
	January-March 1999	5	12	18
(c) Gloucester	October-December 1998	--	--	4
	January-March 1999	2	1	2

(6) Provisional

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DNA Samples

Mr. Beith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many DNA samples have been taken of people (a) charged and (b) cautioned, in each police area and in total in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [86125]

Mr. Boateng: The annual totals (Table A) are based upon the information submitted with each DNA sample sent by individual police forces to the Forensic Science Service. The information shows whether someone has been "cautioned" or "not cautioned". The term "not cautioned" can mean the individual has been suspected,

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convicted, charged or informed that he will be reported for a recordable offence. It is, therefore, not possible to provide precise figures for (a).

The cumulative totals for the past five years (Table B) are based upon the number of samples received by the Forensic Science Service from each force. As neither individual forces nor the Association of Chief Police Officers retain information about the number of samples actually taken, the information in the table is the most reliable indicator available of the number taken and submitted to the Forensic Science Service for analysis. The cumulative totals in (Table B) cover the period to March 1999 only and therefore, differ slightly from those in (Table A) which include additional months.

Table A: Samples submitted annually by police forces--1995 to 1999

	Samples per year
	First columns relates to 'cautioned', second to 'not cautioned'
Force	1995		1996		1997		1998		1999
Avon and Somerset	22	1,728	83	1,957	409	3,587	679	5,500	323	2,536
Bedfordshire	3	1,042	24	912	124	1,116	0	11	2	0
Cambridgeshire	12	1,540	30	1,890	163	1,895	314	1,873	111	1,604
Cheshire	5	955	54	2,986	196	2,735	195	1,570	1	0
Cleveland	61	1,929	75	1,757	123	1,664	181	1,093	37	449
Cumbria	2	415	19	790	76	1,250	218	2,208	60	719
Derbyshire	11	4,240	24	3,824	390	3,681	498	4,131	195	1,482
Devon and Cornwall	73	2,676	41	3,125	636	3,442	608	3,667	322	1,676
Dorset	0	671	9	724	23	795	30	831	14	265
Durham	13	1,232	13	1,110	224	2,495	646	3,259	11	177
Dyfed-Powys	41	1,860	9	2,407	168	2,604	409	2,190	114	819
Essex	8	2,461	20	2,265	565	3,946	758	4,053	279	1,452
Gloucestershire	1	885	1	861	50	1,024	210	1,484	113	542
GMP	58	2,179	335	8,303	712	7,701	293	1,727	0	7
Gwent	4	1,819	8	2,321	116	2,528	368	1,886	140	715
Hampshire	4	2,837	8	3,454	122	4,320	355	4,155	157	1,426
Hertfordshire	42	1,121	73	1,128	52	1,227	85	1,252	27	429
Humberside	7	1,262	310	6,237	1,919	8,313	2,230	5,466	716	1,828
Kent	12	2,363	95	3,161	351	2,807	1	12	0	3
Lancashire	100	3,256	242	5,289	366	4,462	195	2,069	1	6
Leicestershire	3	1,818	19	2,359	70	2,417	184	2,701	140	1,101
Lincolnshire	0	418	6	1,404	23	1,583	44	1,464	29	456
Metropolitan	80	15,796	133	16,387	1,070	19,456	5,952	29,152	2,520	11,809
City of London	297	1,467	400	1,647	710	1,437	633	1,280	232	505
Mersey	1	2,959	59	4,324	109	2,411	446	5,624	164	2,153
Norfolk	15	1,010	59	3,504	475	4,081	1,069	3,791	511	1,604
Northamptonshire	1	1,627	0	1,776	170	2,689	269	2,558	117	748
Northumbria	2	3,321	143	5,701	223	3,361	338	3,533	135	1,469
North Wales	8	1,751	1	1,936	110	1,979	509	2,484	197	989
North Yorkshire	29	1,335	16	1,535	50	1,674	112	1,539	31	643
Nottinghamshire	3	399	18	1,423	268	3,976	25	367	0	5
South Wales	9	5,988	238	8,222	769	6,927	130	1,538	17	191
South Yorkshire	4	2,841	11	2,894	374	5,833	2,582	9,440	194	1,177
Staffordshire	0	1,196	2	1,048	71	1,868	1,091	7,484	512	3,294
Suffolk	2	20	43	966	181	1,657	67	495	0	2
Surrey	4	556	2	674	68	1,783	76	1,379	12	279
Sussex	14	2,613	29	2,644	93	1,898	93	1,119	84	689
Thames Valley	18	2,758	52	3,045	81	2,467	197	2,106	272	1,428
Warwickshire	0	431	0	488	71	849	130	1,043	42	352
West Mercia	25	2,313	23	1,907	82	1,807	194	1,849	110	855
West Midlands	36	2,760	770	7,258	1,208	10,266	2,746	13,155	1,333	5,242
West Yorkshire	66	5,662	188	7,389	782	8,534	1,286	9,191	363	3,143
Wiltshire	1	1,271	4	1,145	17	1,401	27	786	0	1

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Table B: Cumulative figures by police force--April 1995 to March 1999

Force	Number of samples received
Avon and Somerset	15,854
Bedfordshire	3,279
Cambridgeshire	8,179
Cheshire	8,789
Cleveland	7,079
Cumbria	5,382
Derbyshire	17,842
Devon and Cornwall	15,563
Dorset	3,254
Durham	9,195
Dyfed-Powys	10,361
Essex	14,986
Gloucestershire	4,855
GMP	21,360
Gwent	9,657
Hampshire	16,298
Hertfordshire	5,264
Humberside	27,289
Kent	8,967
Lancashire	15,997
Leicestershire	10,372
Lincolnshire	5,252
Metropolitan	96,388
City of London	8,334
Mersey	17,320
Norfolk	15,432
Northampshire	9,670
Northumbria	17,660
North Wales	9,446
North Yorks	6,753
Nottinghamshire	6,652
South Wales	24,153
South Yorkshire	25,392
Staffordshire	14,731
Suffolk	3,438
Surrey	4,729
Sussex	9,034
Thames Valley	11,743
Warwickshire	3,249
West Mercia	8,788
West Midlands	41,970
West Yorkshire	35,241
Wiltshire	4,662

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