The Government's Young Offender Pledge: Arrest to Sentence Data

The Government’s pledge is to halve the time it takes to deal with persistent young offenders from arrest to sentence, from an average of 142 to 71 days. Data provided by the Lord Chancellor’s Department from the Police National Computer has revealed that

• the average time from arrest to sentence for persistent young offenders (PYOs) in England and Wales was 93 days for the year 2000. This compares to 108 days for 1999, and 142 days for the 1996 baseline year;
• the overall average time from arrest to sentence for cases sentenced in magistrates’ courts was 82 days in 2000 - a drop from 96 days in 1999. Cases sentenced in the Crown Court took an average of 218 days from arrest to sentence in 2000 - up from 212 days for 1999.