§ Kate HoeyTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what assessment the Department has made of the effect on the attendance of witnesses of youth court adjournments. [60327]
§ Yvette CooperA joint monitoring scheme with the Crown Prosecution Service and other criminal justice agencies began on 1 April in all magistrates courts. This collects data for all adjourned trials including youth cases, and includes the attendance of witnesses. The first quarterly figures will be available in July 2002. The Crown court also operates a similar monitoring scheme. The data will inform a research project, planned to start later this year, to investigate the effect of trial adjournments on witness attendance. It will include youth cases.