Volume of work in Youth Courts - Enfield

12/08
9 July 2008
MPA briefing paper

Author: Stephen Collins A/Supt, TP Emerald, MPS

This briefing paper has been prepared to inform members and staff. It is not a committee report and no decisions are required.

Background

This report has been prepared to provide an update on an issue raised by the MPA at PPRC regarding an apparent reduction in Youth Court throughput and querying the reasons behind this. Particular reference was made to an apparent reduction at Enfield Youth Court and whether this was replicated across London.

Enquiries have been made with HMCS regarding its statistics and it was able to provide information based on the number of offences per annum processed by the youth courts rather than number of defendants. HMCS has advised that generally to assess the number of defendants, the data that it provides should be divided by 1.75 (the average number of offences per defendant). Having reviewed the youth court figures supplied on that basis, the total of indictable, either way and summary only summons and charge cases (excluding motoring offences) at Enfield Youth Court was 869 in 2006/7 and 661 in 2007/8, a year on year reduction of 208 or 24%.

However, the comparative totals for all London magistrates courts were 21325 in 2006/7 and 21256 in 2007/8, a year on year reduction of only 69 (0.33%). It therefore appears that the level of reduction in throughput at Enfield Youth Court is not typical of all youth courts across London, as total throughput has remained virtually static over the two years.

A similar review of MPS data in respect of under-18s charged with offences in shows that in 2006/7 20,424 youths were charged, whilst in 2007/8 this figure was 17807, a reduction of 12.8%. The comparative figures for Enfield borough are 681 and 467, a reduction of 31.4%. In 2007/8, Enfield borough administered reprimands to 69 under-18s and final warnings to 167.

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