§ Mr. Sproatasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many charges for motoring offences came before the courts in England and Wales in 1976 and in the latest 12 months for which figures are available; if he will list the major subjects of such offences; and how much time proceedings on these offences occupied as a percentage of total court time.
§ Dr. SummerskillInformation relating to 1975 will be found in Table 1 of "Offences relating to motor vehicles 1975", a copy of which is available in the Library. The 1976 statistics are not yet available.
Statistics are not available regarding the time occupied by these proceedings as a percentage of total court time. Inquiries made of a small number of justices' clerks in 1976 suggested that road traffic offences take up about 40 per cent. of the total time spent by magistrates' courts in hearing criminal proceedings; but I cannot vouch for the accuracy of this figure.