HC Deb 26 April 2001 vol 367 c394W
Mr. Lidington

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what targets and performance indicators he has set to meet his Department's objective of tackling attrition in the criminal justice system; [158951]

(2) what is his baseline and what are his targets and performance indicators to meet his Department's objective of achieving a reasonable reduction in attrition. [158937]

Mr. Charles Clarke

The Public Service Agreement for the whole criminal justice system, agreed in last year's Spending Review, included a target of increasing the number and proportion of recorded crimes for which an offender is brought to justice. ("Brought to justice" means that an offender has been cautioned, has an offence taken into consideration by the courts in passing sentence, or is convicted of an offence). In "Criminal Justice: The Way Ahead", we indicated that, specifically, there will be a criminal justice system-wide target to increase, by 2004, the number of recorded crimes ending in an offender being brought to justice by 100,000. In 1999–2000, 1,270,000 offences were brought to justice, which represented 24 per cent. of the 5,301,000 crimes recorded in that year.

Mr. Lidington

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what targets he has set to improve the satisfaction of(a) victims and (b) witnesses with the criminal justice system. [159025]

Mr. Charles Clarke

The current target for both victim and witness satisfaction is a five percentage point improvement by March 2002.

Mr. Lidington

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he intends to publish his Department's research findings on public confidence in the criminal justice system. [159026]

Mr. Charles Clarke

The findings of the 2000 British Crime Survey on confidence in the criminal justice system were published on 31 January 2001. A copy of Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate Research Findings No. 137: Confidence in the Criminal Justice System: Findings from the 2000 British Crime Survey was deposited in the Library following publication.