Child witness data
Request
I am currently completing a project surrounding the use of child witnesses in courts, I was wondering whether I could be provided with the overall numbers of child witnesses associated with completed prosecutions under the Freedom of Information Act.
On 17 January 2023 you clarified the following: -
Please could I be provided with the overall numbers of child witnesses between 2021-2022 if this is too soon since we have just gone into the new year 2018-2019 is good too.
Response
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) holds centralised data pertaining to complainants and victims recorded on its system as being aged 17 and under. In line with our data publication policy, data pertaining to the complete calendar year of 2022 is not yet available. In accordance with your request however, the complete data set for years 2018 and 2019 is available.
The available data indicates those witnesses associated with prosecution cases being heard at magistrates’ courts or at the Crown Court. However, there is no indication of a plea in the data or whether the witness was ultimately required to give evidence. The data, which can be found in the table below, should be read in conjunction with the caveats appended to it.
| Number of witnesses aged 17 and under - 2018 | Number of witnesses aged 17 and under - 2019 |
|---|---|
| 13,186 | 10,064 |
The Crown Prosecution Service is able to provide a limited amount of information concerning the number of child complainants and witnesses falling into the following age bands:
- Under 10 years old
- 10 to 13 years old
- 14 to 17 years old
The above table shows the number of complainants and witnesses recorded as aged 17 and under for the two calendar years 2018 and 2019 where the case is being prosecuted in magistrates' courts or at the Crown Court.
These figures have been extracted from the Witness Management System (WMS), a purpose built electronic system designed to enable Witness Care Unit staff to identify cases involving children and other vulnerable witnesses and hence to enable the proper management of issues arising in these cases. However, WMS is not intended to provide a definitive record of the number of complainants and witnesses falling into this category.
Data on the age of witnesses are collated by the CPS with reference to a series of age bands. Individual ages cannot be disaggregated from these bands.
Data is only recorded on the Witness Management System if the case is handled by a Witness Care Unit that uses the WMS. Not all cases are processed by WCUs; early guilty plea cases or more serious or sensitive cases are not channelled through the WCU. Additionally in some Police Force Areas the WMS is not used.
CPS complainant and witness data are available through its Witness Management System (WMS) and associated Management Information System (MIS). The CPS collects data to assist in the effective management of its prosecution functions. The CPS does not collect data that constitutes official statistics as defined in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.
These data have been drawn from the CPS’s administrative IT system, which (as with any large scale recording system) is subject to possible errors with data entry and processing. The figures are provisional and subject to change as more information is recorded by the CPS. We are committed to improving the quality of our data and from mid-June 2015 introduced a new data assurance regime which may explain some unexpected variance in some future data sets.
The official statistics relating to crime and policing are maintained by the Home Office (HO) and the official statistics relating to sentencing, criminal court proceedings, offenders brought to justice, the courts and the judiciary are maintained by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ).