Page:Hansard (UK) - Vol 566 No. 40 August 29th 2013.pdf/88

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The Solicitor-General: The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) keeps its guidance under regular review. CPS criteria for the instruction of more than one counsel, or QC alone, was first introduced in 2005 and revised in 2009. The latest consultation was triggered by a lapse of about three years since the previous revision. It was also apparent from discussions with the senior judiciary and others that there was external interest in this subject and a formal consultation allowed external parties the opportunity to contribute their views on the merits of the criteria. The review will be completed later in 2013.

The Solicitor-General: The Law Officers have introduced three statutory instruments since May 2010, details of which are outlined below. Each Order amended the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 (Specified Proceedings) Order 1999. No statutory instruments have been revoked.

The Solicitor-General: The information requested is contained in the following tables.

In 2010 and 2011 the categories of victim/general public/MP were not recorded separately. The statistics for 2012, however, do separate the victim complaints from the general public complaints. The category of ’General public’ may also include, for example, campaigning organisations.

In some cases, requests to review the sentence were received from both the CPS and victims, MPs and/or the general public and the total figures may not therefore appear to be consistent with the answer given in the answer of 8th July 2013.

The Solicitor-General: The following table contains details on the out of time cases for referable offences between 2010 and 2012. In addition to this there were four cases in 2010 and two cases in 2011 for non-referable offences.