§ Mr. StrawTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what was the number and percentage of defendants dealt with within the custody waiting time limits set by his Department in each year since these waiting limits were set.
Mr. John M. TaylorInformation about the statutory custody time limits is not collected in the form requested for either the magistrates or Crown court. So far as the Crown court is concerned, of the 19,738 defendants remanded in custody who were committed for trial and dealt with during the first 10 months of 1994, 74 per cent. of them—around 14,670 defendants—waited less than 16 weeks. It is not possible to provide an accurate comparable figure for earlier periods.