§ Fiona MactaggartTo ask the Solicitor-General how many prosecutions for racially aggravated offences have been taken up by the Crown Prosecution Service; in how many cases the defendant was(a) convicted and (b) acquitted; and how many cases the Crown Prosecution Service did not pursue. [160999]
§ The Solicitor-GeneralDuring the period 1 April 1999 to 31 March 2000, the CPS received 2,417 racist incident cases from the police. Prosecutions were brought against 1,832 defendants (76 per cent.) on a total of 2,651 charges. Cases against 585 defendants (24 per cent.) were discontinued, dropped at court or could not be prosecuted because the defendant failed to appear.
Almost half (1,299) of the 2,651 charges were for racially aggravated offences under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 which came into force in September 1999. A high proportion of the remaining offences contained admissible evidence of racial aggravation and were prosecuted under other legislation.
Information kept by the CPS on convictions and acquittals relates to charges rather than defendants. Guilty pleas were entered on 66 per cent. of the charges prosecuted and there were convictions after trial on a further 12 per cent. of the charges. There were acquittals on 16 per cent. of the charges and the remaining charges resulted in other forms of disposal, eg bindover without trial.
Further information is available from the CPS Racist Incident Monitoring Report 1999–2000, a copy of which is available in the House of Commons Library.
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