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Street Trading: Licensing

Answer

The statutory fee of £12.25 for a pedlar's certificate under section 5(3) of the Pedlars Act 1871 was last changed with effect from 3 February 1986 (by the Pedlars' Certificates (Variation of Fee) Order 1985/2027).Information on the cost to police authorities of issuing pedlars' certificates is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.Data showing the number of defendants found guilty at all courts of offences under the Pedlars Act 1871, broken down by police force area, in England and Wales, 2002 to 2006 are in the following table.The statistics relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences the principal offence is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe.

Number of defendants found guilty at all courts for offences under the Pedlars Act 1871, broken down by police force area, England and Wales, 2002 to 2006¹,²
Force	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
City of London	—	—	1	—	-
Cleveland	3	—	1	1	—
Derbyshire	8	10	11	12	16
Devon and Cornwall	—	—	1	—	1
Dorset	2	—	1	—	—
Durham	2	—	—	—	—
Essex	2	1	—	5	—
Gloucestershire	1	—	—	—	—
Greater Manchester	—	—	5	—	—
Hampshire	2	3	11	10	8
Hertfordshire	1	—	—	2	2
Humberside	1	—	—	—	1
Kent	2	7	29	29	7
Lancashire	—	1	—	—	—
Leicestershire	—	3	2	—	1
Lincolnshire	1	3	—	—	—
Merseyside	—	1	1	1	2
Metropolitan Police	—	1	3	—	—
Norfolk	—	2	2	10	1
North Yorkshire	9	5	2	—	—
Northumbria	3	3	3	4	2
Nottinghamshire	4	11	4	7	2
South Yorkshire	3	1	1	1	2
Staffordshire	—	1	—	—	—
Suffolk	1	2	1	2	1
Surrey	—	3	2	4	—
Sussex	1	—	2	5	7
Thames Valley	—	1	18	—	3
Warwickshire	—	1	—	—	—
West Mercia	1	—	1	1	4
West Midlands	1	2	1	—	—
West Yorkshire	2	1	1	—	1
Wiltshire	2	4	2	—	2
Dyfed-Powys	1	1	1	—	10
Gwent	—	—	—	—	1
North Wales	1	—	—	—	—
South Wales	1	3	—	—	—
England and Wales	55	71	107	94	74
¹ These data are on the principal offence basis.
² Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used.
Source:
E and A Unit—OCJR, Ministry of Justice

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

222910; 480 c665-6W

Session

2007-08

Subjects

Licensing Street trading

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk