AQO 9111/11-16 Oral question to the Minister of Justice
To ask the Minister of Justice for an update on the outcome of the Speeding up Justice pilot in the Ards court division.
Asked by Stewart Dickson MLA on 5 November 2015
- Answered
- Oral
- After due date
- Tabled
- 5 November 2015
- Answer due by
- 17 November 2015
- Answered
- 18 November 201513 days after tabling
- Department
- Department of Justice
- Priority question
- No
Answer
The Indictable Cases Pilot launched in Ards on 2 January this year and will run until the end of December.
Currently, 128 cases are in the pilot, of which 96 are at court stages. Ten cases have concluded. Two of those cases took only 56 days from the date the incident was reported to police until sentencing, with an average of 97 days across the ten concluded cases.
This is a significant improvement on processing times for the same period in the same area last year, when the average time taken was 197 days.
I want to recognise the tremendous efforts of PSNI, PPS and FSNI in the pilot, and the leadership provided by the Lord Chief Justice and local judiciary.