I posted a recent thread and in it the proposition was touted that England and Wales spends more on Legal Aid than the rest of Europe.
I put forward the idea that this was not true for various factors and recited the fact that France runs a different system. I have now found figures for that, but felt it needed to be put in its own thread as it was a real bone of contention last time it was put forward.
This is the number of crimes committed across European countries that were compared to England and Wales:
England & Wales 4,334,000
Germany 6,054,000
Italy 2,630,000
Spain 2,335,000
France 3,521,000
Norway 277,000
This is the cost for each of those countries, when you factor in the Courts, Legal Aid and the Cost of prosecutions:
England and Wales 4, 458, 810, 000
Germany 8, 171, 522, 000
Italy 4, 427, 485, 116
Spain 4, 202, 016, 219
France 3, 935, 548, 101
These amounts are in Euros and are taken from this document:
http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/cooperation/cepej/evaluation/2012/Rapport_en.pdf
These crime stats are taken from this document:
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php?title=File:Crimes_recorded_by_the_police,1999-2009%281_000%29.png&filetimestamp=20121109145307
We have 2/3rds the crime rate of Germany, but spend almost half of what they spend on our Courts, Prosecutions and Legal Aid.
We have roughly double the crime rate of Italy, and yet we only spend 30,000,000 more than them. How is that not cost effective?
We have 15 times the crime rate of Norway, yet we only spend half a billion more than them, I think that is pretty impressive.
The bullsh!t the press tell you about our legal system being more expensive, is a lie, and you should at least know that and knowing that you should sign the petition to save our justice system:
