§ Lord Hyltonasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many cases connected with scheduled offences in Northern Ireland the Attorney General has certified out for trial by jury in each of the last four years.
§ The Lord ChancellorThe figures relating to the number of applications to the Attorney General for his Certificate under Schedule 4 to the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Acts 1978 and 1987, that an offence is not to be treated as a scheduled offence, for each of the last four years are as follows:—
The figures set out above for 1985 and 1986 represent the number of relevant applications and not the number of cases involved, since more than one application may have been made in respect of an individual case and, in some instances, a single application may have been made in respect of more than one defendant:
Year Total number of applications Total granted Total refused 1985 352 262 90 1986 495 304 191
Year Number of persons in respect of whom applications were made Number of offences in respect of which applications were made Number of offences in respect of which applications were granted Number of offences in respect of which applications were refused 1987 497 848 479 369 1988 484 1,019 527 492 The difference in the format of recording the figures after 1986 is explained by a change from a manual to a computerised record system.