Written question asked by Peter Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party) on Tuesday, 22 November 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 24 November 2005. It was answered by Lord Hanson of Flint (Labour) on Tuesday, 29 November 2005 on behalf of the Northern Ireland Office.

Graffiti

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many prosecutions there have been against people found putting graffiti on property in each of the last five years in (a) East Belfast and (b) Castlereagh.

Answer

Prosecution data for the specific act of putting graffiti on property cannot be separately identified. The figures shown in table 1 include prosecutions for the offences of criminal damage, possessing an article with intent to damage property, and malicious damage. The geographical breakdown is based on offenders addresses that fall within the PSNI District Command Units of East Belfast and Castlereagh. Such a breakdown is not available for 1999.Data relating to 2004 will be available in early 2006.

Table 1: Persons prosecuted for criminal damage offences 2000–03⁽³¹⁾
	Belfast East	Castlereagh
2000	63	29
2001	48	21
2002	38	28
2003	59	33
Note: Data are based on the police District Command Unit in which an offender's address falls. The District Command Unit structure became operational in April 2001. However, for the purposes of comparability, calendar year 2000 and first quarter 2001 data are also provided based on 2001 DCU structure.
⁽³¹⁾ Includes criminal damage, possessing an article with intent to damage property, and malicious damage.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 440 c380W;440 c380W; 31995
Session: 2005-06
Subjects: Belfast Graffiti Prosecutions Castlereagh
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk

Graffiti

Secondary information

Librarians' tools