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DATA ELEMENTS AND DATA ELEMENT CONCEPTS


ACTIVE PENDING DEFENDANT


IDENTIFYING AND DEFINITIONAL ATTRIBUTES

Metadata type:

DATA ELEMENT CONCEPT Version: 1

Definition:

A defendant who has been initiated (lodged) in a criminal court and has at least one charge that has not been finalised at a particular date and is an active unit of work for the court in that it is part of the case management of court administrators. This excludes defendants who have had a bench warrant issued.

Context:

A defendant can be either pending at the start of a counting period (those for whom further work is required at the beginning of the counting period), or pending at the end of a counting period (those for whom further work is required at the end of the counting period).

The count of Active Pending Defendants gives an indication of the current workload of defendants within a criminal court.

RELATIONAL ATTRIBUTES

Verification rules:

To verify a defendant as active pending the following can be checked:

• For active pending at start - At the beginning of the counting period the defendant has been initiated but has one or more charges unfinalised and is an active unit of work for the courts.
• For active pending at end - At the end of the counting period the defendant has been initiated but has one or more charges unfinalised and is an active unit of work for the courts.

Related metadata:

Is related to the data element concepts:

Defendant
Lodgment

Duration

1. Higher Criminal Courts Collection Manual

2. Report on Government Services, 2004

Source organisation:

1. Australian Bureau of Statistics

2. Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service Provision

History:

Commenced 2005

Comments:

None