Source · Select Committees · Justice Committee
Recommendation 7
7
Accepted
Paragraph: 47
Significant gap in accessible public information on specific sentencing trends.
Conclusion
There is currently a significant gap in the public information on sentencing. The criminal justice system quarterly statistics provide information on sentencing, but there remains a need for more easily accessible data on sentencing trends, especially on sentencing for specific offences and in specific areas. At present the public debate on sentencing focuses almost exclusively on individual cases and we believe that better analytical information could help to redress this imbalance.
Government Response Summary
The government states that its Criminal Justice System Statistics publication has significantly developed to meet user needs, offering detailed data tools and user guides, and commits to continuing to consider options for broader visual presentations.
Paragraph Reference:
47
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.