Crown Court Bulletin for January - March 2011 (Provisional Figures)

Contents

• Summary
• Figure 1 - Crown Court cases dealt with
• Table 1 - Crown Court cases received
• Table 2 - Crown Court cases disposed
• Table 3 - Crown Court defendants received
• Table 4 - Crown Court defendants disposed
• Table 5 - Average waiting times in days
• Table 6 - Crown Court defendants disposed by judge type
• Table 7 - Crown Court defendants disposed by charge type
• Table 8 - Outcome of Crown Court defendants
• Table 9 - Crown Court sitting times

Important Notes:

Figures are computed from a live database and may change due to late returns and further validations.

Date of disposal is based on the date of sentencing, date of acquittal or date a bill of indictment is not proceeded with.

Waiting times do not exclude recess.

Data source and validations:

Data from the Integrated Courts Operations System (ICOS) are used for this publication.  This system has been chosen as it is the main system within the Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunals Service (NICTS).  The data are input to this system on a daily basis.  A download from this system is supplied to the Statistics and Research team on a weekly basis on flat files.

This information is downloaded via SPSS and validations are produced from this system to ensure that the data are reliable and robust for use.  Any inconsistencies are reported back to individual court offices and if required, any necessary amendments are made to the data.  Once, these amendments have been checked, computer syntax is then used to produce the tables in the bulletin.  The aggregated total figures in the bulletin are produced from the computer syntax.  The data are broken down by court location as this is the established way of producing and presenting these data.
To ensure that timely data are used, the latest available extract is used to compile this bulletin.

Summary

Cases received and dealt with:

There were 414 Crown cases received during January to March 2011. This was a 29% increase on the 322 received during January to March 2010. The cases dealt with have decreased by 6% from 393 in January to March 2011, to 415 for the same period in 2011 (Figure 1).

Defendants received and dealt with:

557 defendants were received in Crown Court during January to March 2011 (a 36% increase since the same period last year, when 409 defendants were received). 540 defendants were dealt with during January to March 2011 (a 5% increase when compared with 513 defendants dealt with in the same period last year).

Waiting times:

The average time from committal to hearing for January to March 2011 was 126 days, compared with 117 days for the same period in 2010. The average time from conviction to disposal was 52 days, compared with 45 days for the equivalent period in 2010.

Disposals:

County Court Judges disposed of 99% of defendants (532). 17% of defendants were charged solely with offences against the person while 33% of defendants had a combination of charges.

Pleas and findings:

Of the 540 defendants disposed, 242 (45%) pleaded guilty to all charges.

Crown Court sittings:

In total there were 826 Crown court sittings for January to March 2011 compared with 773 for January to March 2010 (an increase of 7%), with a total time of 2671 hours sat compared with 2142 hours sat during the same period last year.

Figure 1: Crown Court Cases Dealt With (January to March)

Table 1 - Crown Court cases received

Table 2 - Crown Court cases disposed

Table 3 - Crown Court defendants received

Table 4 - Crown Court defendants disposed

Table 5 - Waiting times in days

[1] Excludes defendants who had a bench warrant or deferred sentence

Table 6 - Crown Court defendants disposed by judge type

Table 7 - Crown Court defendants disposed by charge type

Table 8 - Outcome of Crown Court Defendants

Table 9 - Crown Court sitting times

For further information on this publication please contact:

C Darragh
Statistics and Research
Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunals Service
Laganside House
23-27 Oxford Street
Belfast
BT1 3LA

Tel: 028 9072 8927