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Driver Prosecutions

Volume 456: debated on Wednesday 7 February 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many drivers were prosecuted for offences contrary to sections (a) 3 and (b) 34 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 in Suffolk in each year since 1997. (118656)

Available information for the Suffolk police force area and taken from the Court Proceedings database held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform covering offences under section 3 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 from 1997 to 2004 (latest available) are given in the table.

Offences under section 34 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 cannot be identified separately from other summary motoring offences. 2005 data will be available later this year.

Proceedings at magistrates courts for the offence of driving without due care and attention1, within Suffolk police force area, 1997 to 2004

Number of offences

Total proceedings

1997

668

1998

589

1999

519

2000

537

2001

523

2002

600

2003

540

2004

580

1 Offence under section 3 of the Road Traffic Act 1988.

Notes:

1. Offences contrary to section 34 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 cannot be identified separately from other summary motoring offences.

2. It is known that for some police force areas, the reporting of court proceedings, in particular those relating to summary motoring offences, may be less than complete. Work is under way to ensure that the magistrates courts’ case management system currently being implemented by the Department for Constitutional Affairs reports all motoring offences to the Office for Criminal Justice Reform. This will enable more complete figures to be disseminated.

3. Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when these data are used.