Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the recording of non-crime hate incidents on the sentencing of individuals in future criminal proceedings.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
All factual matters material to a criminal sentence must be admitted by the offender or proven in a court to the criminal standard using admissible evidence. By definition, the recording of a previous incident as “non-crime” is unlikely to meet that standard.
The Code for Crown Prosecutors sets out the general principles a prosecutor must apply when making a decision as to whether there is sufficient evidence, and whether it is in the public interest, to authorise criminal charges against a suspect. The Crown Prosecution Service has published guidance on bail, the focus of which is on ensuring that the Court is provided with the relevant information to enable it to come to a proper decision as to whether or not to grant bail, with or without conditions. This will be fact specific to the circumstances of the alleged offence and the defendant. The administrative police recording of an earlier incident or allegation, which has previously been determined not to have been a crime, is unlikely to have any relevance to the question of bail.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, whether the Crown Prosecution Service uses information about recorded non-crime hate incidents in deciding whether to (a) bring charges and (b) recommend bail conditions.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
All factual matters material to a criminal sentence must be admitted by the offender or proven in a court to the criminal standard using admissible evidence. By definition, the recording of a previous incident as “non-crime” is unlikely to meet that standard.
The Code for Crown Prosecutors sets out the general principles a prosecutor must apply when making a decision as to whether there is sufficient evidence, and whether it is in the public interest, to authorise criminal charges against a suspect. The Crown Prosecution Service has published guidance on bail, the focus of which is on ensuring that the Court is provided with the relevant information to enable it to come to a proper decision as to whether or not to grant bail, with or without conditions. This will be fact specific to the circumstances of the alleged offence and the defendant. The administrative police recording of an earlier incident or allegation, which has previously been determined not to have been a crime, is unlikely to have any relevance to the question of bail.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how many prosecutions for hate crimes have the CPS commenced in each of the last 12 months; and how many and what proportion of these prosecutions resulted in conviction.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
In the year to December 2024 the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) authorised the charging of a total of 11,777 suspects in hate crime flagged cases with 87.4% of legal decisions resulting in a suspect being charged.
The below table provides a breakdown of the monthly charge volumes and rate for 2024.
| 24-01 | 24-02 | 24-03 | 24-04 | 24-05 | 24-06 | 24-07 | 24-08 | 24-09 | 24-10 | 24-11 | 24-12 |
Suspects Charged | 852 | 888 | 891 | 937 | 911 | 859 | 1,010 | 1,429 | 974 | 1,039 | 1,005 | 982 |
Charge Rate (% of all legal decisions) | 85.5% | 86.4% | 85.8% | 88.1% | 87.6% | 86.5% | 85.8% | 91.7% | 86.7% | 85.1% | 88.3% | 88.9% |
Over the same period the CPS has prosecuted 14,657 defendants of which 12,614 were convicted, giving a conviction rate of 86.1% for the 2024 calendar year.
The below table provides a breakdown of the monthly completed prosecutions and convictions for 2024.
| 24-01 | 24-02 | 24-03 | 24-04 | 24-05 | 24-06 | 24-07 | 24-08 | 24-09 | 24-10 | 24-11 | 24-12 |
Completed Prosecutions | 1,183 | 1,112 | 1,092 | 1,116 | 1,255 | 1,102 | 1,222 | 1,419 | 1,283 | 1,462 | 1,325 | 1,086 |
Convictions | 1,015 | 976 | 919 | 970 | 1,069 | 931 | 1,039 | 1,257 | 1,108 | 1,259 | 1,140 | 931 |
Conviction Rate (%) | 85.8% | 87.8% | 84.2% | 86.9% | 85.2% | 84.5% | 85.0% | 88.6% | 86.4% | 86.1% | 86.0% | 85.7% |
The volume of prosecution outcomes for a period differs from the volume of pre charge decisions for the same period. Where the pre charge decision is to bring charges many cases will only reach a conclusion in a later period. This will vary according to the outcome type: for example, the legal process is longer where a case is contested or sent to the Crown Court and tried by jury.
Further information can be found in quarterly data published on the CPS website: CPS quarterly data summaries | The Crown Prosecution Service.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, if she will publish the guidance issued to the Crown Prosecution Service on the application of the public interest test in cases involving freedom of expression.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
All guidance issued to Crown Prosecutors to assist their decision making is available here: Prosecution guidance | The Crown Prosecution Service. The overarching Code for Crown Prosecutors issued by the Director for Public Prosecutions provides guidance on how to apply the Public Interest Test in all cases that are referred to the Crown Prosecution Service.
Cases involving freedom of expression issues can come in many forms, and so the relevant guidance will be followed by prosecutors depending on the facts and circumstances of the alleged conduct and the relevant statutory provisions.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help increase the number of prosecutions for people found to be driving under the influence of drugs.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
Enforcement of drug driving legislation and how available resources are deployed is an operational matter for individual Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners to determine in conjunction with local crime and policing plans, taking into account the specific local problems and demands with which they are faced.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecutes cases that are referred to it by the police.
The Government has announced more than half a billion pounds of additional central government funding for policing next year to support the Government’s Safer Streets Mission.
Section 5A of the Road Traffic Act 1988, introduced in 2015, aligned enforcement of drug driving with that of drink driving by introducing a strict liability offence to avoid the need to prove impairment. CPS management information shows that in the financial year 2023/2024, 25,559 offences were charged under this section which proceeded to a first hearing in the magistrates’ courts.