Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 12 June 2023 to Question 188260 on Magistrates' Courts: ICT, how many and what proportion of defendants have appeared without legal representation in magistrates’ courts where the Common Platform has been used by (a) court and (b) the alleged criminal offence of the defendant in each of the past three years.

Common platform first started receiving criminal cases in September 2020.

The total number of defendants whose cases have been handled on Common Platform is 456,597 of which 231,223 had no legal representation recorded on the case. It is important to note that this data includes Single Justice Service Cases.

The attached spreadsheet breaks down defendants by a) court and b) by criminal offence and are for the period September 2020 – June 2023.