Attorney General backs expansion of early guilty plea scheme

Dominic Grieve, the Attorney General, has given his backing to an expansion of the early guilty plea scheme.

The scheme, currently being piloted at Crown Courts in Reading, Winchester, Chelmsford and Bristol, aims to dispose of a case where a defendant pleads guilty in a single hearing.

Speaking at the ILEX annual luncheon in London last week, Grieve said he believed the scheme could bring 'significant benefits' to the criminal justice system and should be extended to other areas.

However, he was careful not to get caught up in what justice secretary Ken Clarke called the 'media brouhaha' over his comments on rape, part of a wider debate over the MoJ's plan to increase the sentence discount for early guilty pleas from a third to a half.

Grieve said there should be 'more effective use of the sentence discount '“ the existing one, rather than any that might be introduced in the future'.

He described the fact that more than two-thirds of cases reaching the Crown Court ended in a guilty plea as 'one of the worst inefficiencies in the system'.

Grieve said that in over 10,000 cases in 2009, defendants pleaded guilty at the door of the court. In most instances the defendant could have done so, and been sentenced, in the magistrates' court.

'Their not doing so means that court, police, prosecution and legal aid resources are wasted on cases that did not need to progress any further. Moreover, and very importantly, victims and witnesses have longer to wait before they discover whether they will have to give evidence, and the outcome of their case.

'This can increase their stress and worry at having to give evidence and is unfair on them.'

Grieve also said that more cases should be dealt with summarily at magistrates' courts.

'While the discretion for magistrates to refer cases to the higher court where necessary should be preserved, this should happen only when there are clear and compelling reasons.

'Cases are being tried in costly ways, even when there is a choice. Over 55 per cent of defendants in either-way cases sentenced in the Crown Court receive a sentence which could have been imposed by magistrates.'

Grieve said that in the last few years workloads in the Crown Court had increased, while those in the magistrates' courts had fallen so they were operating at 'significantly less than full capacity'.

Despite improvements in efficiency, 40,000 Crown Court cases were awaiting trial in 2009.

He said that in many ways the CPS was 'ahead of the game' in finding 'innovative ways of delivering its service'.

He praised the work of associate prosecutors, trained by ILEX, and said legal executives were well placed to take advantage of increased competition in the legal services market.

In a separate development, Downing Street sources are reported to have said that MoJ plans to increase the discount on sentences for early guilty pleas from a third to 50 per cent have been put on hold.

Clarke was at the centre of a furious row last week for comments he made about rape, an example of an offence where the discounts would be available under the sentencing green paper. Labour leader Ed Milliband demanded the justice secretary's resignation.

Speaking on BBC One's Question Time, Clarke said his choice of words was wrong and he had 'got bogged down in a silly exchange'.

'I obviously upset a lot of people by what I said and I'm sorry if I did, by the way I put it. All rape is serious. It's one of the gravest crimes.'

Clarke said his sentencing proposals, contained in the MoJ's sentencing green paper, would apply to all crimes.

Lord Justice Thomas, deputy head of criminal justice, and Lord Justice Goldring, senior presiding judge of England and Wales, warned last month that the plans to increase discounts for guilty pleas could lead to a 'real risk of loss of confidence by the public in the criminal justice system' (see solicitorsjournal.com, 7 April 2011).

A spokeswoman for the MoJ said anyone who committed a serious violent or sexual offence would continue to receive a long prison sentence.

'The 50 per cent discount is the maximum reduction under consideration,' she said. 'It will only be available for those who plead guilty at the earliest opportunity.

'It will certainly not apply to every guilty plea '“ only if offenders plead at the earliest opportunity. Judges will of course retain discretion over sentences in individual cases.

'It is right that we continue to incentivise early guilty pleas. They can reduce the number of victims of crimes like rape who are forced to relive the trauma that they suffered and be subject to cross-examination in court.'