Section 51 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 creates two offences:<\/p>
S.51(1) creates an offence directed at acts against a person who assists in an investigation of an offence or who is a witness or potential witness or juror or potential juror whilst an investigation or trial is in progress<\/p>
S.51(2) creates an offence directed at acts against a person who assisted in an investigation of an offence or who was a witness or juror after an investigation or trial has been concluded.<\/p>
The records held by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) identify the number of offences in which a prosecution commenced and reached a first hearing in the magistrates\u2019 courts, rather than the number of defendants prosecuted. A single defendant may be prosecuted for multiple offences.<\/p>
The number of offences charged under s.51(1) and s.51(2) are as follows:<\/p>
|
| 2010-2011<\/p><\/td> | 2011-2012<\/p><\/td> | 2012-2013<\/p><\/td> | 2013-2014<\/p><\/td> | 2014-2015<\/p><\/td><\/tr> |
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 51(1)<\/p><\/td> | Intimidate a witness / juror<\/p><\/td> | 3,275<\/p><\/td> | 2,630<\/p><\/td> | 2,148<\/p><\/td> | 2,066<\/p><\/td> | 2,202<\/p><\/td><\/tr> |
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 51(2)<\/p><\/td> | Do an act which harmed a witness / juror<\/p><\/td> | 102<\/p><\/td> | 166<\/p><\/td> | 99<\/p><\/td> | 72<\/p><\/td> | 109<\/p><\/td><\/tr> |
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 51(2)<\/p><\/td> | Threaten a witness / juror<\/p><\/td> | 240<\/p><\/td> | 172<\/p><\/td> | 118<\/p><\/td> | 122<\/p><\/td> | 129<\/p><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table> The proportion of CPS cases that result in a guilty plea has increased from 67.2% in 10/11 to 74.5% in 14/15 which means that there are fewer cases that are likely to be subject to the sorts of acts covered by s.51(1) during the course of the prosecution.<\/p> Also, s.51(1) covers intimidation of juror or potential jurors. The number of crown court trials have also been reducing over the period in question by 9.5%, again resulting in fewer cases where S.51(1) offences are likely to apply.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4106", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Sir Robert Buckland"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "South Swindon"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Robert Buckland"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2016-01-13", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2016-01-13T15:14:30.323Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "88"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Attorney General"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Attorney General"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2016-01-07", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Juries"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Attorney General, pursuant to the Answer of 5 January 2016 to Question 20564, how many people were charged with jury (a) intimidation and (b) tampering in each of the last five years.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/1516", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Andy Slaughter"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Hammersmith"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Andy Slaughter"} ], "uin" : "21435"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 1, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} } |