Review of the Criminal Courts of England and Wales

Appendix 4

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The Current workload of the criminal courts

Overall caseloads

1. In 1999, the courts of England and Wales dealt with nearly two million criminal cases. All of these cases had at least one hearing in a magistrates’ court. A minority were subsequently committed, transferred or sent to the Crown Court. The table below shows the level of court at which cases were completed:

Crown Court	97,000 [1]	5%
Magistrates’ Court	1,789,000 [2]	95%

[NB all figures in this appendix have been rounded to the nearest 1,000. Any apparent discrepancies between tables, have arisen because cases are measured at the point at which they are completed by the relevant court. Cases completed by the Crown Court during 1999 may well have been committed or sent there by a magistrates’ court in 1998 (or earlier). Also, the category of such a case may change after it has been recorded as leaving the magistrates’ court.]

Categorisation of offences

2. All criminal offences currently fall into one of three categories. Summary offences, which include most motoring offences and other relatively minor matters such as drunkenness, common assault and prostitution, are triable only in a magistrates’ court. ‘Either-way’ offences, including theft, drugs offences and some involving violence against the person, are triable either by a magistrates’ court or by the Crown Court. And indictable only offences, such as murder, rape and robbery, must be tried by the Crown Court. The 1999 caseload (measured at the point at which cases left or were dealt with by a magistrates’ court) breaks down as follows:

Summary	‘Either-way'	Indictable only
1,369,000 [3]	480,000 [4]	33,000 [5]
73%	26%	1%

Summary cases

3. The table below shows the outcomes of the summary cases dealt with by magistrates’ courts during 1999: ^[6]

Defendants proceeded against	Case terminated in advance of trial	Found not guilty after trial	Convicted
1,369,000	281,000	24,000	1,064,000

4. Firm data are not available on the number of defendants who plead guilty in summary cases. Sampling exercises carried out by magistrates’ courts and reported to the Lord Chancellor’s department during 1999 suggest a guilty plea is entered in around 55% of summary cases.^[7] It should be noted that the Crown Prosecution Service, working from a different base, puts the figure substantially higher.

‘Either-way’ cases

5. Almost half a million ‘either-way’ cases were dealt with by magistrates’ courts in 1999. The outcomes of these cases were as follows: ^[8]

Defendants proceeded against	Case terminated in advance of trial	Committed toCrown Court for trial	Found not guilty after summary trial	Convicted and sentenced by summary court	Convicted by summary court and committed to Crown Court for sentence
480,000	133,000	51,000	11,000	266,000	19,000

6. Firm data are not available on the number of those defendants who pleaded guilty while the case remained in the magistrates’ court. Estimates based on sampling exercises carried out by magistrates’ courts and reported to the Lord Chancellor’s department during 1999 suggest that this is the outcome in around 50% of ‘either-way’ cases. It should be noted that the Crown Prosecution Service, working from a different base, puts the figure substantially higher. As explained in paragraph 9, additional guilty pleas were entered later in respect of those cases committed to the Crown Court for trial.

7. As the above table illustrates, around 11% of all ‘either-way’ cases were committed to the Crown Court for trial. In the majority of these cases (nearly 70% according to CPS statistics^[9]), magistrates declined jurisdiction on the basis that their sentencing powers would be insufficient if the defendant was convicted. In the remainder of these cases (ie just over 30%), magistrates were content to accept jurisdiction, but the defendants elected trial by judge and jury. Overall, therefore, less than 4% of defendants charged with an ‘either-way’ offence elected to be tried in the Crown Court.

8. The following table shows the outcomes of ‘either-way’ cases completed during 1999 after being committed to the Crown Court for trial:

Defendants in ‘either-way’ cases committed to Crown Court for trial	Case terminated in advance of trial	Not convicted (inc jury acquittals and judge ordered/ directed acquittals)	Convicted
58,000 [10]	2,000	13,000	43,000

9. 62% of defendants committed to the Crown Court for trial subsequently entered a guilty plea. Of the approximately 20,000 defendants who pleaded not guilty and were tried, 64% were acquitted.

10. The following table¹¹ sets out the penalties imposed on defendants charged with ‘either-way’ offences and sentenced in the Crown Court during 1999. Of the defendants convicted after being committed for trial, over 55% received a sentence which was within the powers of a magistrates’ court. Magistrates’ decided to commit about 20,000 defendants to the Crown Court for sentence. Nearly 60% of these defendants received a sentence which was within the powers of a magistrates’ court.

	Defendants sentenced in Crown Court for‘either-way’ offences	Non-custodial sentence	6 months and under	Over 6 months and up to 12	Over 12 months and up to 18	Over 18 months and up to 24	Over 24 months and up to 60	Over 60 months
Committed for trial	43,000	19,000	5,000	6,000	4,000	3,000	5,000	1,000
Committed for sentence	20,000	7,000	5,000	4,000	2,000	1,000	1,000	<100

 

Indictable only cases

11. In 1999, in addition to the ‘either-way’ cases committed for trial or sentence, the Crown Court dealt with just under 17,000 defendants charged with indictable only offences. The table below shows the outcomes of those cases:

Total proceeded against	Case terminated in advance of trial	Not convicted (inc jury acquittals and judge ordered/ directed acquittals)	Convicted
17,000	<500	5,000	12,000

12. 52% of indictable only defendants pleaded guilty. Of the approximately 8,000 defendants who pleaded not guilty and were tried, 62% were acquitted.

 

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1 criminal statistics 1999, Supplementary table S2.1(A) (total for trial + total convicted at magistrates’ court)
2 criminal statistics 1999, Supplementary table S1.1(A) (total proceeded against - committed for trial or sentence)
3 criminal statistics 1999, Supplementary table S1.1(A) (total proceeded against)
4 figures provide by RDS (IRS 6599)
5 figures provided by RDS (IRS 6599)
6 criminal statistics 1999, Supplementary table S1.1(E)+(F)
7 estimated using 1999 Time Interval Statistics
8 criminal statistics 1999, Supplementary table S1.1(E)+(F)
9 CPS Annual Report 1999/00
10 figures provided by RDS (IRS 6519c)
11 figures provided by RDS (IRS 6519c for trials, 6519b for sentences)

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