§ Mr. Chris DaviesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the impact of the procedures introduced under section 48 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 in respect of the time spent by police officers making unnecessary court appearances; and if he will make a statement. [24887]
§ Mr. MacleanIt was in order to reduce the waste of time and money which results from "cracked" trials—when defendants who intend to plead guilty delay doing so until the day of the trial—that the practice of giving discounts for early guilty pleas was put on a statutory basis in section 48 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.
The latest figures from the Lord Chancellor's Department show that the proportion of cases in which the plea was changed to guilty on the date of trial fell by five percentage points between the last quarter of 1994 and the last quarter of 1995. Although it is uncertain to what extent section 48 contributed to this fall, any decrease in the incidence of cracked trials saves the time of the police and of other witnesses, as well as saving court time.