§ Mr. Formanasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what are the results of the investigation into the possible fault in the reporting of information on acquittal rates for those pleading not guilty, referred to in paragraph 16 of "Criminal Statistics, England and Wales, 1979".
§ Mr. WhitelawA research study carried out for the Royal Commission on criminal procedure, some of the findings of which were published in "Contested Trials in Magistrates' Courts" as No. 6 in the Royal Commission's series of research studies, indicated that there could have been an error of about 8 per cent. in the reporting to the Home Office of the number of pleas of guilty in magistrates' courts in four large petty sessional divisions in 1979. Investigation has confirmed this; the proportion of guilty pleas at these courts was 82 per cent., not 90 per cent. as reported.
The error has implications for the calculation of the acquittal rate for those pleading not guilty for these four petty sessional divisions. In 1979 the acquittal rate was about 25 per cent., whereas the information originally supplied to the Home Office indicated an acquittal rate of about 55 per cent. Errors of the same type have also been discovered in the information reported for 1979 relating to some large Crown court centres.
In the light of the recent investigations, statistics previously published which indicated that aggregate acquittal rates at magistrates' courts differed little from those at Crown courts can no longer be regarded as valid. To obtain retrospectively comprehensive and accurate information would require a large scale exercise for which resources are not a present available. We are considering what statistics on acquittal rates should be published in the future.