PPS Publishes Quarterly Statistical Bulletin

The Public Prosecution Service (PPS) today published its Statistical Bulletin 2018/19, which presents key statistics on the activity of the PPS including files received, caseloads and prosecutorial decisions. It also covers decision types, including reasons for no prosecution and the outcomes of prosecutions at court.

The statistics relate to the 2018/19 financial year (i.e. 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019) and includes comparisons with the 2017/18 financial year.

Key findings

During 2018/19:

• The PPS received a total of 43,298 files, an increase of 2.1% on 2017/18 (42,395). Of these 43,298 files, 42,324 were received from Police.
• The majority of files received from Police were within two offence classifications: 30.2% related to ‘motoring offences’ (12,777) and 27.8% related to ‘violence against the person’ offences (11,762). There was a rise of 9.2% in the number of files received involving fraud and forgery and a 5.4% decrease in motoring offences.
• In addition to the files received from the PSNI, 974 files were submitted to PPS by government departments and agencies. Of these, 45.6% were received from the Driver and Vehicle Agency and 24.3% from the Department for Communities.
• A total of 50,336 prosecutorial decisions were issued by the PPS. The Test for Prosecution was met for 68.5% of cases which included 30,898 decisions for prosecution and 3,566 for diversion from the courts.
• Of the 15,872 decisions for no prosecution, the vast majority (97.0%) did not pass the evidential test. The remaining 3.0% did not pass the public interest test.
• On average it took 244 calendar days for the issue of indictable prosecution decisions (prosecution in the Crown Court) which is 43 days more than in 2017/18 (201 days). Summary prosecutions decisions (prosecution in the Magistrates’ or Youth Court) required on average 28 days, a decrease of 5 days on the previous period (33 days).
• There were 1,458 defendants dealt with in the Crown Court. This was a decrease of 3.4% on the previous financial year (1,510). The overall conviction rate in the Crown Court was 84.4% compared with 84.8% in 2017/18.
• A total of 29,155 defendants were dealt with in the Magistrates’ and Youth Courts, an increase of 3.9% on 2017/18 (28,066). The conviction rate in the Magistrates’ and Youth Courts was 81.1%, an improvement on 2017/18 (80.0%).

The Bulletin can be found on the PPS website at:

https://www.ppsni.gov.uk/Quarterly-Statistical-Bulletins-7877.html

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