Select Committee on Home Affairs Minutes of Evidence

Annexes

Annex A—Reducing delays for persistent young offenders

  A.1.  The average time from arrest to sentence for persistent young offender (PYOs) in England and Wales was 68 days for August 2002, the eleventh consecutive month below the target of 71 days in order to meet the commitment to halve the average time.

  A.2.  The overall average time from arrest to sentence for PYO cases sentenced at magistrates' courts in August 2002 was 59 days. The proportion of all cases that were sentenced in magistrates' courts during August 2002 was 92%.

  A.3.  The average time from arrest to sentence for cases sentenced at the Crown Court in August 2002 was 170 days. Cases sentenced at the Crown Court include both time spent in magistrates' courts before committal to the Crown Court and time spent in Crown Court proceedings after committal. However, it is not possible to provide a breakdown of these periods separately.

  A.4.  The category of persistent young offender was defined in the inter-Departmental circular Tackling delays in the Youth Justice System issued in October 1997: "A persistent young offender is a young person aged 10-17 who has been sentenced by any criminal court in the UK on three or more separate occasions for one or more recordable offence, and within three years of the last sentencing occasion is subsequently arrested or has an information laid against them for a further recordable offence."

  A.5.  Figures published by the Lord Chancellor's Department showing the change in the average time from arrest to sentence for persistent young offenders since 1997 are set out in table one. Regional data is set out in table two.

  A.6.  The Board is building on the work in delivering the PYO commitment with a target to reduce delays for all young defendants appearing in the youth court to an average of 51 days.

Table 1: Average number of days from arrest to sentence for persistent young offenders in England and Wales

Period		Days	Number of cases
1996 (1)		142	not applicable
1997 (2)		141	16,010
1998 (2)		125	18,605
1999 (2)		108	21,151
2000		93	23,130
2001		76	25,393
2000	January-March	95	6,221
	April-June	92	5,676
	July-September	93	5,678
	October-December	93	5,555
2001	January-March	89	6,818
	April-June	76	6,355
	July-September	71	6,260
	October-December	68	5,960
2002	January-March	69	6,595
	April-June	67	6,412
2000	January	97	1,835
	February	96	2,147
	March	93	2,239
	April	90	1,731
	May	91	1,922
	June	94	2,023
	July	91	1,928
	August	89	1,975
	September	98	1,775
	October	93	1,950
	November	93	2,050
	December	91	1,555
2001	January	90	2,227
	February	93	2,240
	March	85	2,351
	April	81	1,936
	May	75	2,264
	June	72	2,155
	July	73	2,232
	August	68	2,125
	September	73	1,903
	October	69	2,187
	November	68	2,163
	December	67	1,610
2002	January	70	2,343
	February	69	2,128
	March	67	2,124
	April	65	2,091
	May	70	2,474
	June	68	1,847
	July	67	2,277
	August	68	1,924

Notes:

(1)  Figures for 1996 are not available for each month.

(2)  Figures by month for 1997 are published in bulletins 1/2000 to 5/2000, for 1998 in bulletins 1/2000 to 5/2001, for 1999 bulletins 1/2000 to 11/2001.

Table 2: Average number of days from arrest to sentence for persistent young offenders in England and Wales: by Criminal Justice Area

Area	2001	April-June 2001	July-September 2001	October-December 2001	January-March 2001	April-June 2002(3)
Wiltshire	80	86 *	76	45	63	37
Gloucestershire	59	71	51	56 *	69	42 *
Dyfed-Powys	57	80	34	57	52	47
Kent	85	96	73	74	55	48
Gwent	70	72	81	65	64	49
Devon and
Cornwall	60	62	60	67	65	51
North Yorkshire	65	72	56	43	41	52
North Wales	66	76	58	66	70	54
Staffordshire	65	66	51	59	48	54
Bedfordshire	76	50 *	83 *	61 *	73 *	54 *
Lincolnshire	70	64	64	59	79	55
West Yorkshire	70	69	58	69	59	55
Cumbria	55	64	49	41	70	57
South Wales	67	68	62	64	64	57
Durham	71	78	61	65	64	60
Sussex	96	95	94	93	81	60
Warwickshire	61	83	67	38	79	60
Cleveland	62	69	50	53	51	62
Norfolk	63	60	65	53	70	62
West Mercia	79	75	67	67	63	63
Cheshire	61	60	60	42	53	63
Greater
Manchester	71	62	66	63	64	63
Dorset	67	69 *	69 *	51 *	67	64
Nottinghamshire	66	67	62	57	76	64
Northumbria	65	62	66	68	61	65
West Midlands	91	87	89	71	67	65
Leicestershire	81	79	75	80	73	67
Derbyshire	89	66	93	80	83	68
Essex	65	59	65	55	63	69
Merseyside	91	90	77	72	66	69
Hampshire	66	60	64	56	64	70
Humberside	76	70	69	61	67	72
Thames Valley	83	87	81	69	75	72
Hertfordshire	81	80	64	60	71	73
Northamptonshire	81	93	83	76	89	74
Surrey	80	66	80	80 *	70	77
Cambridgeshire	91	81	83	101	89	78
South Yorkshire	68	60	65	64	65	84
Lancashire	83	81	80	83	94	86
Metropolitan (2)	100	107	88	94	83	86
British
Transport Police	96	96	119	75	95	92
Avon and
Somerset	91	95	88	83	91	93
Suffolk	77	77	73	72	65	97
England and
Wales	76	76	71	68	68	67

Figures marked * are based on 40 cases or fewer and should be interpreted with caution.

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Prepared 8 April 2003