§ Mr. Ian BruceTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what assessment he has made of the time taken for courts to dispose of cases since May. [12644]
§ Mr. HoonThe time taken from first listing to completion for indictable cases in magistrates courts is surveyed by the Department's time intervals survey. The June 1997 survey, the latest from which results are available, reports that the average time from first listing to completion for defendants in indictable cases was 58 days, and 21 and 29 days for defendants in summary non-motoring and summary motoring cases respectively.
For defendants committed to the Crown Court for trial, information is collected on the time from committal to arraignment or start of trial. The average time for defendants over this interval since May 1997 has been as follows: May 1997, 11.79 weeks; June 1997, 11.95 weeks; July 1997, 12.49 weeks; August 1997, 11.74 weeks; and, September 1997, 11.74 weeks.
In the county court and High Court, information on the time taken to deal with cases is recorded each March and September. Results for September 1997 are not yet available.