A lack of information on low level offending could hamstring the prime minister's Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan, the authors of a study on data and statistical gaps in the criminal justice system of England and Wales warn today. The effectiveness of sanctions against anti-social behaviour and the use of the so-called 'community trigger' are among the areas where no national data is collected despite repeated requests from MPs and others, according to the study by the Centre for Public Data. 

Other areas 'where a lack of official data means that questions of significant public interest cannot be answered' include the number of unrepresented defendants appearing in magistrates' courts and data about individual courts needed for efforts to clear the backlog. 

Such data black holes 'limit the scope of public inquiry, breed mistrust and can serve to disguise poor treatment of particular groups of people', the study concludes. 

The centre identified data gaps by collecting unanswered questions from such sources as select committee reports, major independent reports and questions in parliament. It identifies four areas of 'significant demand' for information. They are: 

  • Remand and bail including the length of time that prisoners are held in custodial remand
  • Sentencing, including the government's unmet commitment to publishing sentencing data for individual courts
  • Court operations, including the number of unrepresented defendants in magistrates' courts and data on the court backlog such as the time taken for cases to pass through individual courts
  • Low-level offences, including the number of anti-social behaviour powers and informal out-of-court disposals the police issue every year. 

Concluding that the Ministry of Justice has a 'formal duty to address these data gaps' the report concludes that solutions are 'low-cost and technically feasible'. It notes that most of the data covered is already being collected in case management systems such as the new Common Platform. 'However, the MoJ has so far been slow to use this new data to produce additional statistics.' 

Anna Powell-Smith, director of the Centre for Public Data, said: 'Data gaps in the criminal justice system mean that questions of significant public interest cannot be answered. Our research found many areas where MPs and other stakeholders have not received answers to important questions, including critical areas like the number of people appearing in magistrates’ courts without legal representation. Good data is essential - it cannot be an optional extra.'

 

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