Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, how many offenders involved in violent knife crime have engaged in a charge bargain to lessen their sentence in each of the last three years.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not maintain a central record of the number of people illegally carrying knives who have been charged with the offence or offences of manslaughter. This information could only be obtained by an examination of CPS case files, which would incur disproportionate cost.

There is no system of plea bargaining in courts in England and Wales. It may be appropriate for a plea to be accepted to alternative charges in some cases. However, the CPS do not capture any data on cases where this occurs centrally; therefore, the information could only be obtained by an examination of CPS case files, which would incur disproportionate cost. The CPS uses the Code for Crown Prosecutors to decide the charge and the Attorney General’s guidelines on acceptance of pleas, in deciding whether to accept a guilty plea to a lesser charge. In both its Legal Guidance on Offensive Weapons and the Knife Crime Practical Guidance, the CPS state that the weapon offence should be charged in addition to the substantive offence.