Hmcs business Information Division

	HMCS Business Information Division 2^nd Floor Post Point 2.24 102 Petty France London SW1H 9AJ T 020 3334 6881 F 020 3334 6796 E [e-mail] www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk
Steve Elibank [e-mail]
14 April 2011	Our ref: FOI/69483/GM

Dear Mr Elibank,

SUBJECT: Freedom of Information Request
Thank you for your email dated 7 April 2011 received by my office today. I would like to firstly apologise for the delay in responding but I understand upon receipt this had not been assigned to a business area.
In your request you asked for the following information from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ):
‘Please inform me how many people have been cited for contempt in the last seven years, and for each case, what the penalty imposed was. I would like the dates, and if possible the court, but I am not interested in the people's names so there will be no issue of personal data.’

Your request has been passed to me as I have responsibility for answering requests, which relate to data in Her Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS). HMCTS is an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and is responsible for the administration of the magistrates' courts, the Crown Court, county courts, the High Court, Court of Appeal and Tribunals in England and Wales and non-devolved tribunals in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Your request has been handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

I can confirm that the department holds centrally collected data in respect of ‘contempt of court’ in the Crown Court since 2004. This can be provided as national data broken down into disposal types as follows:

No. Defendants	Disposal (Group)
Outcome (Year)	Community	Custody	Discharge	Fine	Other	Grand Total
2004	1	3	3	1		8
2005		7	1	3		11
2006	1	3	5	1		10
2007		2	3	2	1	8
2008	1	5	4	1		11
2009		8	2	2	1	13
2010		9	1	6		16
Source: HMCS CREST – Crown Court data management system

• 
  The figures for contempt are based on the number of defendants who have been dealt with at the Crown Court during the previous 7 complete years.
  
• 
  ‘Other' contains the ‘free-text’ disposal code and also 'indictment to remain on file'.
  
• 
  Where a defendant has multiple counts of contempt within the same case, the defendant will have been counted only once.
  
• 
  Where the defendant received different disposals across any multiple counts of contempt within a case, the 'disposal group' assigned will have been in the order of Custody, Discharged, Fine, Community Order, Suspended, Other - where Custody is the first group and Other is the last.
  
• 
  Where a disposal consists of a 'fine with imprisonment in default', the disposal has been grouped under fine.
  
• 
  Acquitted falls into the discharge category
  

In terms of the magistrates’ courts, at this moment we are unable to confirm if data is available; however we are carrying out investigations and can report back to you by Wednesday 20 April. I trust this will be suitable.

You can also find more information by reading the full text of the Act (available at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/contents) and further guidance http://www.justice.gov.uk/guidance/freedom-of-information.htm.

 

You have the right to appeal our decision if you think it is incorrect. Details can be found in the ‘How to Appeal’ section attached at the end of this letter.

 
Yours sincerely
G Mehmet

Gulsun Mehmet

HMCTS Business Information Division

 

 

 

How to Appeal

 

Internal Review

If you are not satisfied with this response, you have the right to an internal review. The handling of your request will be looked at by someone who was not responsible for the original case, and they will make a decision as to whether we answered your request correctly.

 

 

If you would like to request a review, please write or send an email to the Data Access and Compliance Unit within two months of the data of this letter, at the

following address:

 

 

Data Access and Compliance Unit (6.25),

Information & Communications Directorate,

Ministry of Justice,

102 Petty France,

London 

SW1H 9AJ

 

E-mail: [e-mail]

 

Information Commissioner’s Office

If you remain dissatisfied after an internal review decision, you have the right to apply to the Information Commissioner’s Office. The Commissioner is an independent regulator who has the power to direct us to respond to your request differently, if he considers that we have handled it incorrectly.

 

You can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at the following address:

 

Information Commissioner’s Office,

Wycliffe House,

Water Lane,

Wilmslow,

Cheshire 

SK9 5AF

Internet address: https://www.ico.gov.uk/Global/contact_us.aspx