Dramatic fall in number of court cases heard in the Black Country and Staffordshire
The number of cases heard by magistrates courts in the Black Country and Staffordshire has fallen by more than 26 per cent in four years.
Courts dealt with 70,537 cases in 2013/14, compared with 95,439 in 2010/11. Most saw a drop in the total number of hearings heard between 2010/11 and 2013/14, with only Cannock bucking the trend and reporting an increase.
National figures show that courts across England and Wales heard 2.8 million cases last year – nearly a million less than in 2010. The figures were uncovered by Dudley North MP Ian Austin.
Last year he led a successful campaign to save Dudley Magistrates' Court from closure. He said: "We already know that a million crimes are not being recorded, the number of police is down by 13,000 and now these figures show that the number of cases taken to court is down by a quarter.
"When I was fighting to save Dudley's local court from closure, magistrates told me police are dealing with serious cases, including domestic violence and rape, out of court. People will be outraged. Like me they want more police on the streets, more offenders going to court and more criminals being put in jail."
The number of cases heard by Dudley magistrates during the four-year period dropped from 15,552 to 10,502 – a reduction of around 32 per cent. At Wolverhampton, 14,010 hearings took place in 2013/14 compared with 23,124 in 2010/11 – a drop of around 39 per cent.
In Walsall cases heard fell by around 49 per cent from 19,493 to 9,864, and at Warley there was a drop of around 31 per cent with 18,468 cases heard in 2010/11 and 12,584 in 2013/14.
In Stafford, cases have fallen from 9,771 to 4,839. But at Cannock Magistrates the number of cases heard more than doubled. In 2010/11 there were 9,031 hearings compared with 18,738 last year – an increase of 107.4 per cent.
