HL Deb 13 July 1999 vol 604 cc15-6WA
Lord Janner of Braunstone

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Further to the Written Answer by the Lord Williams of Mostyn on 17 May (WA 8):

  1. (a) How sentencers currently obtain the information produced by the Government as required under Section 95 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991; and
  2. (b) How sentencers will in future obtain such information. [HL3451]

Lord Williams of Mostyn

Home Office publications, including those under Section 95 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991, are available on the Home Office website at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/publf.htm. The annual summary of financial information, which I referred to in my previous Answer, will be available on the website when it is published. Future summaries will also be available on the website.

The most recent publication under Section 95, Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System, took place on 8 December 1998 and was circulated to all key practitioners as well as being available on the website. The next publication, Women and the Criminal Justice System, is due the end of July.

Information on the costs of different sentences is published periodically in the Home Office's Digest of Information on the Criminal Justice System in England and Wales. The most recent volume was published in 1995. The next volume is due to be published on paper and on the Internet later this year.

Information on variation in sentencing between different courts is published annually in the supplementary tables of the Command Paper, Criminal statistics, England and Wales. A table in Supplementary Tables Volume 2 shows the sentences given during the year at each Crown Court centre. Supplementary Tables Volume 4 contains detailed tables showing the sentences given for various common offences in each petty sessional division. These figures are represented graphically in the booklet, Local Sentencing Patterns in Magistrates' Courts. This material is sent to every court in the country.

Criminal statistics lists all publications under Section 95 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991.