Prosecutions
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to ensure defendants under the Single Justice Procedure are aware they have the option to elect for a court hearing.
Answered by Heidi Alexander
This Government is determined to ensure the Single Justice Procedure (SJP) operates fairly and transparently. We are currently reviewing potential changes to the Procedure and will consider legislative reform if necessary.
As it stands, there are multiple points in the SJP process where a defendant is notified of their right to elect for a court hearing.
When a prosecutor presses charges under the SJP they issue the defendant with a SJP Notice. The information leaflet which accompanies the SJP Notice states that the defendant will need to decide whether or not they want to go to court and explains the process should they elect for a court hearing.
The SJP Notice also provides the following link - Single justice procedure notices - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk), which is publicly available and where it states clearly ‘You can choose if you want to go to court or not’.
The plea form, which defendants responding to an SJP Notice are asked to fill out, also states that, if pleading guilty, the defendant must choose whether they want to go to court and there is a tick box with the options ‘Yes – I want to come to court’ or ‘No – I do not want to come to court’.
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