§ Mr. BlairTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many allegations of wrongful conviction upon indictment have been received during each of the last 10 years by C3 division of his Department with a view to investigation and possible reference to the Court of Appeal under section 17 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1968; and, of those, how many cases in each year have been(a) investigated by C3 division, (b) sent to Ministers for a decision, (c) referred to the Court of Appeal and (d) resulted in the Court of Appeal finding that individuals had been wrongly convicted; and what was the average length of time between an allegation having been referred to C3 and a finding of wrongful conviction by the Court of Appeal.
§ Mr. Jack[holding answer 11 November 1992]: I regret that information is not available in the form requested. The available information is as follows:
Number of representations received in C3 Division since 1 October 1984 in respect of allegations of wrongful conviction where a sentence of imprisonment was imposed Period Number received 1 October 1984 to 30 September 1985 654 1 October 1985 to 30 September 1986 601 1 October 1986 to 30 September 1987 560 1 October 1987 to 31 March 1988 1256 1 April 1988 to 31 March 1989 360 1 April 1989 to 31 March 1990 544 1 April 1990 to 31 March 1991 512 1 April 1991 to 31 March 1992 679 1 April 1992 to 30 September 1992 315 1 A six-month period is shown because the procedure for collecting and collating these statistics was revised in April 1988.
Number of cases referred to the Court of Appeal under section 17(1) (a) of the Criminal Appeal Act 1968 and the number of such cases in which the conviction was quashed. Year Number of cases1 referred Number of those cases in which the conviction was quashed 1982 4 4 1983 3 3 1984 12 3 1985 4 2 1986 4 1 1987 6 3 1988 2 — 1989 3 3 1990 7 27 1991 10 29 1992 (up to 30 September 1992) 7 3— 1 Some cases involve more than one defendant. 2 Includes one case in which acquittal followed a retrial ordered by Court of Appeal. 3 None of the cases referred in the period has so far been heard by the Court of Appeal. All representations received by C3 division are fully and carefully considered; and further investigations, for example, by the police are requested whenever it is considered that such action would be appropriate.