Source · Select Committees · Justice Committee
Recommendation 5
5
Accepted
Review MoJ sentencing statistical releases for public accessibility, analysis, and relevance.
Recommendation
It is vital that the public has access to current data on sentencing practice so individual cases can be understood in their broader context. The MoJ should review its statistical releases on sentencing to ensure that they are presented in a format that is easily accessible and relevant to members of the public. Statistical releases should be accompanied by analysis and commentary. The MoJ should also revive the digest of criminal justice statistics and ensure that this reflects trends in sentencing and issues subject to public debate. (Paragraph 42) Public opinion and understanding of sentencing 57
Government Response Summary
The government outlines how its Criminal Justice System Statistics publication has significantly developed to offer accessible data tools and commentary, and states it will continue to consider broader visual presentations, rather than committing to a specific review or revival of the digest.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The quarterly publication of Criminal Justice System Statistics has developed significantly in recent years to continue to address as many users’ needs as possible, in a far more flexible way than would be possible with a lengthy digest—for example, providing more detailed data tools that enable users to self-serve and cut data in a whole variety of ways, and through development of the raw data themselves. We continue to invite user feedback on all our publications and produce our statistics with focus on the code of practice for statistics, with a key focus on user needs. We also publish a comprehensive user guide that takes people through our data, providing commentary alongside our data tables each quarter. We will continue to consider options for broader visual/html-based presentations of our data and are ambitious for continual improvement without overwhelming users.