asked the Minister for Justice for each of the years 1985, 1986 and 1987 (a) the number of petitions received by his Department for (i) the remission of fines under the Criminal Justice Act, 1951 (ii) the remission or commutation of prison sentences under the same Act (b) the number of instances in which fines were reduced or remitted completely (c) the number of instances in which prison sentences were reduced or commuted (d) the annual value of fines remitted and (e) the number of officers engaged in dealing with remissions or commutations under the Criminal Justice Act, 1951.
Written Answers - Criminal Justice Act, 1951.
15.
Statistics relating to petitions are not maintained in such a way as to enable all the information sought in the question to be provided and the compilation of the information which is not readily available would require the commitment of a disproportionate amount of staff time. In the circumstances, I propose to circulate in the Official Report a tabular statement setting out the information in so far as it is available.
The following is the statement:
TABLE
|
Heading |
1985 |
1986 |
1987 |
|
(a) (i) (ii) Estimated number of petitions received for the remission of fines and remission or commutation of prison sentences |
4,542 |
5,860 |
5,345 |
|
(b) Number of fines remitted or mitigated |
757 |
2,692 |
2,331 |
|
(c) Prison sentences reduced or commuted |
5 |
14 |
8 |
|
(d) Annual value of fines remitted |
Not available |
||
|
(e) Minimum/Maximum number of Head Office staff assigned to processing petitions |
6/11 |
11/15 |
9/15 |
In relation to (a), estimated figures are provided as more precise figures are not available.
In relation to (e), staff numbers vary from time to time. Minimum and maximum numbers are shown for each year.