§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs (Mr. Christopher Leslie)I am pleased to be able to announce that today I have placed in the Libraries of both Houses copies of the annual report relating to the 2002–03 business returns provided by magistrates' courts in England and Wales. This is the first time that this report has been published and it heralds a new era in the development of the 42 separate Magistrates' Courts Committee (MCC) areas towards74WS the planned unification with each other and with the Court Service Agency. One key matter in the report relates to the enforcement of fines that have been in the full control of magistrates' courts since April 2001. I addressed the matter of the poor collection rates in a written ministerial statement that I made on 25 June 2003, Official Report, column 40WS and I set out the seven point action plan that I am pursuing vigorously in order to improve upon the current performance that has been achieved by magistrates' courts and their agents.
In other areas the magistrates courts have maintained a high level of service during a demanding year. They have supported and participated in a number of criminal justice initiatives, including the street crime initiative in the largest ten areas, extended court sitting hours pilots in London and Manchester and full involvement in the development of the local criminal justice boards. This was during a period when there were considerable additional demands on them. These included the rollout of new computer hardware, new data demands from across the Government service and the MCCs' full involvement in the work being undertaken to facilitate the new planned agency. The latter will bring together the 42 currently independent Magistrates' Courts Committee areas and the Court Service agency into one unified courts administration and considerable work is being done by all involved to ensure a successful outcome.
Particular successes have been in supporting the achievement of the persistent young offender timeliness target of 71 days, reducing it from 142 days and achieving a national average for 2002–03 of 69 days. The active use of courts has also increased from 62.6 per cent. to 67.3 per cent. in 2002–03, which in part reflects the continuing cross-agency approach which means that magistrates courts are being used by other agencies such as the Crown Court and tribunals.
In particular, the Department is leading an initiative, the Case Preparation Project, which involves the other agencies in the Criminal Justice System and which is part of the work looking at what can be done to reduce the number of ineffective trials and improve the service to victims and witnesses.
Overall, there have been a number of successes, but the work that has been announced in relation to the enforcement of fines is particularly important to ensure that there is confidence in the criminal justice system and proper implementation of judicial decisions.