Number of Cases referred to you without going to the Court of Appeal

The request was successful.

Dear Criminal Cases Review Commission,

I would be great if you could urgent provide me with the following information:

1) How many cases have you taken on without them going to the Court of Appeal first from June 2014-September 2016?

2) Of these cases please can you list where the original trial was held and what the offence was and the length of the prison sentence?

Yours faithfully,
Tina W

info, Criminal Cases Review Commission

 

Dear Tina W,

 

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 REQUEST

 

We acknowledge receipt of your request for information, received on 3
October 2016.

 

Your request is being dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (FOIA).  Please note there is a twenty working day
limit (from receipt of the request) in which we are required to respond to
requests under the FOIA.

 

The deadline for your request is 1 November 2016.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Information Team

CCRC

 

 

 

 

 

The Criminal Cases Review Commission
5 St Philip's Place
Birmingham
B3 2PW
Telephone: 0121 233 1473
Fax: 0121 232 0899

HawkinsJ, Criminal Cases Review Commission

 As requested by support@, this response has been resent with two new
attachments.  The FOI request and CCRC response are unchanged. The
amendment appears in the attached annual report for 2015/16  which has
been amended to remove a specific name for security reasons.  The case now
appears as that of Z. The anonymity is required by the Court of Appeal
agreeing to anonymise the appellant in the case of R v Z [2016] EWCA Crim
1083.
 
The amendment  to the CCRC 2015/16 Annual Report is not directly relevant
to FOI respquest responded.
 
Justin Hawkins
Head of Communication
Criminal Cases Review Commission
 

Dear Tina W

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request. Please find attached
PDF copies of the CCRC's Annual Report and Accounts for 2014/15 and
2015/16.

As you will see from these documents we already publish details of the
number of applications that we receive and the number of referrals that we
make each year in our Annual Reports to Parliament. These and earlier
reports are also available online at [1]www.ccrc.gov.uk. The attached
reports do not break down the figures into the specific time frame that
you have mentioned, but they do cover the entirety of that period.

They also contain a good deal more analysis of casework during the years
covered such as the incidence of no appeal cases, time frames for various
stages in the casework process and so on.

I hope that you will find these useful.

The second part of your request relates to the courts from which the
convictions in CCRC applications arise, the types of offence they relate
to and the length of prison sentences imposed.

The information for which you ask here does not exist in a format that
makes it practical to generate an answer to your question. In order to do
so we would need to open the electronic records in relation to each
individual case (as you will see from the material supplied we have had
around 3,000 applications in the last two years) and manually record
details from each one and then compile the data.

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 sets a limit on the amount of time we
are required to spend generating an answer in order to respond to an
information request. Section 12 of the Act provides that a public
authority can decline a request if the cost of supplying the information
would exceed £450 (calculated, as specified by the Information
Commissioner, as 18 hours work at £25 per hour).

It is immediately clear to us that the amount of work involved in finding
answers to your questions about the type of offence, the court of
conviction, and the length of sentence would take far, far longer than the
law requires us to spend.

Your questions are further complicated by the fact that you mention trial
court, but not all convictions follow a trial (many, including some of our
cases, result from guilty pleas where no trial has taken place) and by the
fact that you ask about length of prison sentence when many convictions,
and many of our cases, do not involve a prison sentence at all because the
individuals concerned received non-custodial sentences). To factor in
these distinctions would significantly increase the already prohibitive
cost of the exercise.

Therefore, unfortunately, we will have to decline to answer those parts of
your question on the basis that the Freedom of Information Act does not
require us to expend the very high level of resources that would required
and because, although we could choose to do that work, we do not think it
would be an appropriate use of our resources.

Regards

Justin Hawkins 
Head of Communication 
Criminal Cases Review Commission

If you disagree with our decision or are otherwise unhappy with how we
have dealt with your request, in the first instance you may approach the
Commission's Customer Services Manager in writing at Criminal Cases Review
Commission, 5 St Philip's Place, Birmingham, B3 2PW. Should you remain
dissatisfied with the outcome you have a right under section 50 of the
Freedom of Information Act to appeal against the decision by contacting
the Information Commissioner, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, SK9
5AF, [[2]email address]

-----Original Message----- 
From: Tina W [mailto:[FOI #362598 email]] 
Sent: 03 October 2016 16:36 
To: info 
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Number of Cases referred to you
without going to the Court of Appeal

Dear Criminal Cases Review Commission,

I would be great if you could urgent provide me with the following
information:

1) How many cases have you taken on without them going to the Court of
Appeal first from June 2014-September 2016?

2) Of these cases please can you list where the original trial was held
and what the offence was and the length of the prison sentence?

Yours faithfully, 
Tina W

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Please use this email address for all replies to this request: 
[FOI #362598 email]

Is [ccrc request email] the wrong address for Freedom of Information
requests to Criminal Cases Review Commission? If so, please contact us
using this form: 
[3]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/change_re...

Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on
the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies: 
[4]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/offi...

For more detailed guidance on safely disclosing information, read the
latest advice from the ICO: 
[5]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/ico-...

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web
manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

HawkinsJ, Criminal Cases Review Commission

2 Attachments

 
As requested by support@, this response has been resent with two new
attachments. The 2015/16 annual report was recently amended to remove a
specific name for security reasons. The The amendment is not directly
relevant to FOI respquest responded to here.
 
Justin Hawkins
Head of Communication
Criminal Cases Review Commission
 

Dear Tina W

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request. Please find attached
PDF copies of the CCRC's Annual Report and Accounts for 2014/15 and
2015/16.

As you will see from these documents we already publish details of the
number of applications that we receive and the number of referrals that we
make each year in our Annual Reports to Parliament. These and earlier
reports are also available online at [1]www.ccrc.gov.uk. The attached
reports do not break down the figures into the specific time frame that
you have mentioned, but they do cover the entirety of that period.

They also contain a good deal more analysis of casework during the years
covered such as the incidence of no appeal cases, time frames for various
stages in the casework process and so on.

I hope that you will find these useful.

The second part of your request relates to the courts from which the
convictions in CCRC applications arise, the types of offence they relate
to and the length of prison sentences imposed.

The information for which you ask here does not exist in a format that
makes it practical to generate an answer to your question. In order to do
so we would need to open the electronic records in relation to each
individual case (as you will see from the material supplied we have had
around 3,000 applications in the last two years) and manually record
details from each one and then compile the data.

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 sets a limit on the amount of time we
are required to spend generating an answer in order to respond to an
information request. Section 12 of the Act provides that a public
authority can decline a request if the cost of supplying the information
would exceed £450 (calculated, as specified by the Information
Commissioner, as 18 hours work at £25 per hour).

It is immediately clear to us that the amount of work involved in finding
answers to your questions about the type of offence, the court of
conviction, and the length of sentence would take far, far longer than the
law requires us to spend.

Your questions are further complicated by the fact that you mention trial
court, but not all convictions follow a trial (many, including some of our
cases, result from guilty pleas where no trial has taken place) and by the
fact that you ask about length of prison sentence when many convictions,
and many of our cases, do not involve a prison sentence at all because the
individuals concerned received non-custodial sentences). To factor in
these distinctions would significantly increase the already prohibitive
cost of the exercise.

Therefore, unfortunately, we will have to decline to answer those parts of
your question on the basis that the Freedom of Information Act does not
require us to expend the very high level of resources that would required
and because, although we could choose to do that work, we do not think it
would be an appropriate use of our resources.

Regards

Justin Hawkins 
Head of Communication 
Criminal Cases Review Commission

If you disagree with our decision or are otherwise unhappy with how we
have dealt with your request, in the first instance you may approach the
Commission's Customer Services Manager in writing at Criminal Cases Review
Commission, 5 St Philip's Place, Birmingham, B3 2PW. Should you remain
dissatisfied with the outcome you have a right under section 50 of the
Freedom of Information Act to appeal against the decision by contacting
the Information Commissioner, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, SK9
5AF, [[2]email address]

-----Original Message----- 
From: Tina W [mailto:[FOI #362598 email]] 
Sent: 03 October 2016 16:36 
To: info 
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Number of Cases referred to you
without going to the Court of Appeal

Dear Criminal Cases Review Commission,

I would be great if you could urgent provide me with the following
information:

1) How many cases have you taken on without them going to the Court of
Appeal first from June 2014-September 2016?

2) Of these cases please can you list where the original trial was held
and what the offence was and the length of the prison sentence?

Yours faithfully, 
Tina W

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Please use this email address for all replies to this request: 
[FOI #362598 email]

Is [ccrc request email] the wrong address for Freedom of Information
requests to Criminal Cases Review Commission? If so, please contact us
using this form: 
[3]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/change_re...

Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on
the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies: 
[4]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/offi...

For more detailed guidance on safely disclosing information, read the
latest advice from the ICO: 
[5]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/ico-...

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web
manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

Doug Paulley left an annotation ()

I have deleted the original response to this FOI request, from
"HawkinsJ, Criminal Cases Review Commission" on 6 October 2016. I did so as we were informed that the response contained personal details which should have been anonymised per a court order, the public authority has supplied a replacement response, and in accordance with our duties under the Data Protection Act.
--
Doug - volunteer, WhatDoTheyKnow.com