§ Mr. Greville Jannerasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much he estimates to be the average cost per hour of a jury trial in a Crown Court and of a summary trial in a magistrates' court, respectively; and how he arrives at such an estimate.
§ Mr. JohnI regret that the information which would be necessary for a reliable estimate is not available. Comparative costs of selected cases were shown in Appendix F to the Report of the Inter-departmental Committee on the Distribution of Criminal Business between the Crown Court and Magistrates' Courts (Cmnd. 6323). The average cost of these selected cases when tried on indictment was £431.39, and the average estimates cost of trying them summarily was £136.44.