Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2019 to Question 213932, what the change has been in the case load of the Crown Prosecution Service for each crime type, in the West Midlands, in each year from 2010 to 2018.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not maintain a central record of offences recorded against crime types. However, the CPS does collect data which reports the number of prosecuted defendants allocated to twelve Principal Offence Categories which is collated in financial years.

The tables in Annex A show the number of finalised prosecution outcomes by Principal Offence during each year from 2010-11 to 2017-18 in the West Midlands CPS Area and in England.

During the 8 year period reported in the table, magistrates’ courts caseload has fallen by 31% and Crown Court caseload by 23% in the West Midlands Area, compared to falls of 47% and 34% respectively across England as a whole.

Despite the falling caseload it is important to be aware that the types of cases prosecuted in the West Midlands and England have changed significantly in the period between 2010 and 2018. The CPS is prosecuting more serious and complex cases in the West Midlands Area as evidenced by a 46% rise in homicide (35% in England), a 34% increase in fraud and forgery (compared to a fall of 17% in England) and a 55% increase in sexual offences cases (26% in England). During this period, minor motoring cases have fallen by 67% in the Area with a similar fall reflected across England. This followed changes to the list of specified offences made in 2012 which transferred responsibility for prosecuting many low level motoring offences back to the police