HC Deb 25 October 1994 vol 248 cc518-9W
Mr. Byers

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for the last year for which information is available for each Crown court circuit, what has been the average length of sentence for those found guilty of rape after(a) pleading guilty and (b) pleading not guilty, and, for those pleading not guilty but found guilty, what has

Adult males found guilty and sentenced at the Crown court for rape offences1 by circuit, average sentence length2 and proportion

sentenced to over five years imprisonment, 1993*.

Crown court circuit Total found

guilty

Number

sentenced to

imprisonment

Average

sentence length2

(months)

Proportion

sentenced to

over five years

imprisonment

Midland and Oxford 78 76 75 61
North Eastern 48 48 72 56
Northern 41 39 69 49
South Eastern 112 105 87 78
Wales and Chester 38 36 76 61
Western 29 26 74 65
England and Wales 346 330 78 65
(1)Substantive rape—excluding attempts and offences under the Mental Health Act 1959.
(2)Excluding "lifers".
* Provisional.

The 1993 information given is expected to be final but has been labelled provisional until publication of the Command Paper "Criminal statistics" on 2 November.

The reply is on the same basis, as information for previous years from Crown court circuits and individual court centres previously provided to the House of Commons Library. A comparison is given in the table. The variation between years for the smaller circuits such as Wales and Chester and Western reflects the small number of persons sentenced per year.

Average sentence length1 in months for adult males sentenced at

the Crown Court for rape offences2 by circuit, 1990–1993*

Crown court circuit 1990 1991 1992 1993*
Midland and Oxford 69 74 75 75
North Eastern 63 79 75 72
Northern 92 74 77 69
South Eastern 78 79 86 87
Wales and Chester 87 75 72 76
Western 71 66 74 74
England and Wales 76 76 79 78
1 Excluding "lifers".
2 Substantive rape - excluding attempts and offences under the

Mental Health Act 1959.

* Provisional.