§ Vera BairdTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications to the Criminal Cases Review Commission in connection with Crown court sentencing were referred to the Court of Appeal Criminal Division in each of the last two years; and how many of them resulted in a quashing or variation of sentence. [32478]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyThe required information is as follows:
1 April 2000 to 31 March 2001 1 April to 31 December 2001* Crown court sentence referrals 3 2 Quashed or varied 2 1 Waiting to be heard 1 1
§ Vera BairdTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what procedures the Criminal Cases Review Commission uses to prioritise its Crown court conviction case load. [32488]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyThe Criminal Cases Review Commission has a priority-ranking group that reviews all applications for priority.
§ Vera BairdTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what quotas there are for the numbers of cases which may be referred to the Court of Appeal Criminal Division by the Criminal Cases Review Commission in any year. [32476]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyThere are no quotas on the number of cases which may be referred to the Court of Appeal in any year by the Commission.
§ Vera BairdTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what priority is given by the Criminal Cases Review Commission to the crown court conviction cases of dead people. [32495]
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§ Mr. Keith BradleyThe Criminal Cases Review Commission has a priority-ranking group that reviews all applications for priority. Cases involving applicants in custody are generally assigned higher priority than those in which applicants are at liberty or deceased, and are reviewed in date order of receipt.
§ Vera BairdTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications to the Criminal Cases Review Commission in each of the last two years concerned sentences passed in the magistrates' courts. [32473]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyThe Criminal Cases Review Commission does not collect routinely the statistics requested, and they could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. However following the introduction of an electronic case database from 1 April 2001 recent data are available. Of 31 applications concerning summary convictions in the period 1 April 2001 to 31 December 2001, one was a sentence only application.
§ Vera BairdTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the Criminal Cases Review Commission criteria are for fast-tracking Crown court conviction cases. [32490]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyCases involving applicants in custody are generally assigned higher priority than those in which applicants are at liberty or deceased, and are reviewed in date order of receipt. Priority may be given to cases in which the health of applicants or witnesses is a significant factor; or there is serious risk of deterioration of evidence, or to cases of special importance to the criminal justice system. Also once they have been identified, cases which offer little or no new evidence or argument and can be reviewed with modest caseworker effort are undertaken without further delay.
§ Vera BairdTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what role the Commissioners of the Criminal Cases Review Commission play in crown court conviction case reviews. [32499]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyCommission members carry out some case reviews and are responsible for all final case decisions.
§ Vera BairdTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of the crown court conviction cases of applicants dead at the time of application were fast-tracked by the Criminal Cases Review Commission in(a) 2002 and (b) 2001; and what proportion these represented all fast-tracked cases in each of those years. [32496]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyNone out of 25 cases in the period 1 April 2000 to 31 March 2001, and one out of 17 cases in the period 1 April 2001 to 31 December 2001 (approximately 6 per cent).
§ Vera BairdTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications to the Criminal Cases Review Commission concerned crown court sentences in each of the last two years; and what proportion this is of all applications of all kinds. [32477]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyThe Criminal Cases Review Commission does not collect routinely the statistics requested, and they could be obtained only at458W disproportionate cost. However following the introduction of an electronic case database from 1 April 2001 recent data are available. In the period 1 April 2001 to 31 December 2001, 616 applications were received. 51 of these (just over 8 per cent. of the total) were sentence only applications.
§ Vera BairdTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of the Criminal Cases Review Commission time was spent in the last two years on(a) the cases of people dead at the time of application,(b) the cases of people dead at the time of referral,(c) magistrates court conviction cases, (d) magistrates court sentencing cases and (e) Crown court sentencing cases. [32482]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyThe Criminal Cases Review Commission does not measure these time elements and this question could only be answered at disproportionate cost. However as few cases involve the deceased, the proportion of time spent on them is small.
§ Vera BairdTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many magistrates court conviction cases were referred to the Crown court in each of the last two years; and how many resulted in a quashed conviction. [32472]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyThe Criminal Cases Review Commission referred one case to the Crown court in the period 1 April 2000 to 31 March 2001. This conviction was quashed. In the period 1 April to December 2001, three cases were referred and are awaiting judgment.
§ Vera BairdTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what role public opinion plays in the Criminal Cases Review Commission criteria for prioritising Crown court conviction cases. [32489]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyThe Commission's policies on case priority setting have been developed with advice and comment from potential applicants, applicants and their representatives, courts of appeal, the Court of Appeal, the criminal justice system and its agencies and the Secretaries of State for the Home Department and for Northern Ireland.
§ Vera BairdTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the Criminal Cases Review Commission processes all magistrates court sentencing cases. [32479]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyYes, the Criminal Cases Review Commission does process all magistrates court sentencing cases.
§ Vera BairdTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of the Criminal Cases Review Commission Crown court conviction cases are fast-tracked. [32491]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyThe Criminal Cases Review Commission does not collect routinely the statistics requested, and they could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. However following the introduction of an electronic case database from 1 April 2001 recent data are available. The Criminal Cases Review Commission received 66 requests for priority during the period 1 April 2001 to 31 December 2001. 17 requests (26 per cent) were granted. Cases identified as requiring only modest caseworker effort were also processed faster.
459W
§ Vera BairdTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to increase the numbers of case review managers at the Criminal Cases Review Commission. [32500]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyThe Home Secretary has provided funding to meet the Criminal Cases Review Commission's proposals in relation to its increasing numbers of case review managers. The commission considers that it has had adequate funding for the 2001–02 financial year, and is now preparing its annual business plan for 2002–03.
§ Vera BairdTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applicants about crown court convictions to the Criminal Cases Review Commission(a) in 2002 and (b) 2001 were dead at the time of the application; and what proportion of the total applications they represented. [32493]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyThe Criminal Cases Review Commission does not collect routinely the statistics requested, and they could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. However following the introduction of an electronic case database from 1 April 2001 recent data are available.
In the period 1 April 2001 to 31 December 2001, one application out of 616 was on behalf of a deceased person.
§ Vera BairdTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many cases of Crown court convictions have been referred to the Criminal Cases Review Commission in each of the last two years; in each year how many were dealt with fully; how many were in process of review at the end of that year; and how many there were upon which work had not commenced. [32486]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyThe Criminal Cases Review Commission does not collect routinely the statistics requested, and they could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. However following the introduction of an electronic case database from 1 April 2001 recent data are available.
The tabulation statistics include convictions in magistrates' courts and these constituted about 6 per cent. for the period 1 April 2001 to 31 December 2001
1 April 2000 to 31 March 2001 1 April 2001 to 31 December 2001 Cases received 799 616 Completed 1,110 881 Under review 492 375 Awaiting review 576 422
§ Vera BairdTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applicants in Crown court conviction cases whose cases have been referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission were dead at the time of referral; and what percentage of total conviction referrals were represented by referrals of the cases of the dead in the last 12 months. [32494]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyThere have been eight cases concerning those deceased at the time of referral, and 3 per cent. (one out of 30 referrals) during the last 12 months.
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§ Vera BairdTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the Criminal Cases Review Commission has formal discussions with the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) on(a) policy and(b) jurisprudence; and which personnel from each organization take part in them. [32475]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyNo formal discussions on either subject have taken place.
§ Vera BairdTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the average time(a) in 2002 and(b) 2001 from application to the issue of a referral or a minded-to-refuse letter for fast-tracked Crown court conviction cases. [32492]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyThe Criminal Cases Review Commission does not collect routinely the statistics requested, and they could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
§ Vera BairdTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the Criminal Cases Review Commission processes all applications which concern Crown court sentences. [32470]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyYes, the Criminal Cases Review Commission processes all applications concerning Crown court sentences.
§ Vera BairdTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the time taken for the Criminal Cases Review Commission to process a Crown court conviction case to a conclusion is sufficiently short, in every case, to remedy miscarriages of justice expeditiously. [32498]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyFollowing consultation, the commission has introduced criteria for prioritising applications and screening that allows less complex cases to be completed without delay. A backlog of accumulated cases has precluded the commission from processing other applications as speedily as would be ideal. Increased resources have been made available to the commission and the backlog has decreased considerably over the last two years and continues to do so. The number of cases under review and awaiting review peaked in 1999, since when it has been halved. The commission is committed to processing all applications with due regard to efficiency and quality.