§ Miss McIntoshTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will propose legislation to adopt into English law the Scots law rule of bringing an offender to trial within 110 days of committal to trial(a) for young offenders and (b) for all offenders; and if he will make a statement. [148943]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeThe Government are committed to reducing the time taken to bring defendants to trial, especially those under the age of 18. To this end we have introduced a number of reforms designed to reduce delay, the latest (which was implemented nationally on 15 January) being the new procedure for sending indictable-only cases to the Crown Court. These measures are reinforced both by custody time limits which restrict the time for which defendants may be held in custody pending trial, and by statutory time limits within which the prosecution must bring cases to trial, which are currently being piloted in selected youth courts. The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 introduced tighter criteria for granting extensions to these time limits, as well as making provision for limits in cases involving juveniles to cover the period from arrest to first listing.