Tulip Siddiq – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2015-12-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, in what proportion of criminal cases in (a) magistrates courts and (b) crown courts the defendant (i) pleaded guilty without trial and (ii) was acquitted following trial.

Mr Shailesh Vara

In 2014, 18.5% of all defendants tried at the Crown Court were acquitted (15,868 out of a total of 85,943 defendants tried at the Crown Court).

In 2014, 99.5% of defendants who pleaded guilty in the Crown Court did so before a jury trial commenced. The methodology for producing the relevant magistrates data is being developed and I will write to the Honourable Member as soon as it is available. A copy of the letter will be placed in the House Library.