Appendix: Variation in Crown Court performance, 2015
1)The data in the table below are more up to date than the data available at the time of our evidence session. The table shows data for the calendar year 2015, whereas at the time we took evidence the data available covered the 12 months up to to September 2015.
2)There are four possible outcomes for a case that is listed to go to court:
|
Area |
Effective |
Cracked |
Ineffective |
Vacated |
Timeliness (days) |
|
Avon and Somerset |
29% |
15% |
8% |
49% |
259 |
|
Bedfordshire |
42% |
19% |
17% |
21% |
264 |
|
Cambridgeshire |
46% |
29% |
6% |
18% |
237 |
|
Cheshire |
24% |
21% |
14% |
41% |
232 |
|
Cleveland |
38% |
37% |
14% |
11% |
204 |
|
Cumbria |
19% |
33% |
12% |
36% |
240 |
|
Derbyshire |
25% |
26% |
11% |
38% |
241 |
|
Devon and Cornwall |
28% |
20% |
9% |
43% |
289 |
|
Dorset |
28% |
18% |
8% |
47% |
230 |
|
Durham |
30% |
45% |
9% |
16% |
203 |
|
Dyfed Powys |
31% |
22% |
3% |
43% |
Data not available |
|
Essex |
40% |
30% |
13% |
17% |
275 |
|
Gloucestershire |
28% |
16% |
6% |
51% |
242 |
|
Greater Manchester |
18% |
21% |
7% |
55% |
251 |
|
Hampshire and Isle of Wight |
36% |
20% |
9% |
34% |
263 |
|
Hertfordshire |
40% |
19% |
18% |
23% |
289 |
|
Humberside |
18% |
21% |
6% |
55% |
211 |
|
Kent |
36% |
21% |
15% |
28% |
286 |
|
Lancashire |
16% |
25% |
10% |
49% |
251 |
|
Leicestershire |
25% |
30% |
13% |
32% |
284 |
|
Lincolnshire |
25% |
18% |
7% |
49% |
235 |
|
London Crown Courts |
47% |
20% |
11% |
22% |
279 |
|
Merseyside |
28% |
29% |
5% |
37% |
259 |
|
Norfolk |
27% |
16% |
9% |
48% |
246 |
|
North Wales |
51% |
25% |
5% |
19% |
281 |
|
North Yorkshire |
30% |
37% |
17% |
16% |
261 |
|
Northamptonshire |
42% |
23% |
11% |
24% |
273 |
|
Northumbria |
25% |
38% |
13% |
25% |
222 |
|
Nottinghamshire |
26% |
21% |
6% |
47% |
234 |
|
South Wales |
35% |
23% |
7% |
36% |
182 |
|
South Yorkshire |
22% |
34% |
9% |
35% |
222 |
|
Staffordshire |
22% |
25% |
6% |
47% |
264 |
|
Suffolk |
46% |
22% |
6% |
26% |
230 |
|
Surrey |
38% |
27% |
19% |
15% |
283 |
|
Sussex |
46% |
24% |
11% |
19% |
340 |
|
Thames Valley |
48% |
19% |
14% |
19% |
267 |
|
Warwickshire |
27% |
30% |
10% |
33% |
278 |
|
West Mercia |
36% |
27% |
12% |
24% |
260 |
|
West Midlands |
32% |
24% |
6% |
38% |
245 |
|
West Yorkshire |
24% |
31% |
11% |
35% |
230 |
|
Wiltshire |
35% |
20% |
6% |
39% |
317 |
- Effective. The case goes ahead as planned on the day it was due to start.
- Cracked. A trial is withdrawn on the day it is due to start, and it is not relisted. This is most commonly because the defendant pleads guilty (as in 80% of cracked cases).
- Ineffective. The case is not ready on the day it is due to start, and is relisted for a later date.
- Vacated. Before the day it is due to start, it becomes clear that the case is unlikely to go ahead as scheduled, and it is removed from the list. The further ahead this happens, the more likely it is that court time will be used productively, and that effort will not be wasted preparing for a case that does not go ahead.
3)The table below shows the performance of different areas of the country in terms of the rates of
- effective trials, which range from 51% of cases in North Wales, to only 16% in Lancashire;
- cracked trials, which range from 15% for Avon and Somerset to 45% for Durham;
- ineffective trials, which range from 3% in Dyfed Powys to 19% in Surrey;
- vacated trials, which range from 11% in Cleveland to 55% in Humberside; and
- timeliness, in terms of the number of days between the offence, and the completion of the court case. This ranges from 182 days in South Wales to 340 days in Sussex.
Technical notes:
4)The data used for this Appendix is contained in the Criminal court statistics (quarterly): October to December 2015 and was accessed on 4 May 2016. It is publicly available from the Ministry of Justice.93 We used the following files:
a)The courts performance data is from the Criminal Courts transparency (CSV).
b)The timeliness data is from the Criminal Courts timeliness (CSV)
5)The data covers 2015, and relates to Crown courts.
93 National Statistics, Criminal court statistics quarterly, England and Wales, October to December 2015,
© Parliamentary copyright 2015
23 May 2016