Catherine McKinnell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine McKinnell on 2015-10-19.

To ask the Attorney General, what assessment he has made of the effect of the criminal courts charge on the reduction in costs awarded to the Crown Prosecution Service under the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 as a result of (a) magistrates and (b) judges using their discretion to lower the level of costs awarded.

Robert Buckland

The criminal court charge imposed a non-discretionary charge on all adult offenders convicted for offences committed on or after 13 April 2015 and is imposed separately from other financial considerations and orders the court may make. It is premature to fully appreciate the implications of the charge on the criminal justice system.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not maintain data on the value of costs awarded to the CPS but does have data on the value of costs recovered following the award of costs. The value of costs recovered and paid to CPS, following the award of costs under the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985, in quarter 1 2015-16 was about £10.7m, in line with expectations.