Written question asked by Simon Burns (Conservative) on Wednesday, 4 March 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 6 March 2009. It was answered by Alan Campbell (Labour) on Tuesday, 10 March 2009 on behalf of the Home Office.

Cannabis: Chelmsford

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people (a) were arrested and (b) received on-the-spot fines for possession of cannabis in West Chelmsford constituency in each of the last five years.

Answer: The information requested on arrests is not collected centrally.The arrests collection held by the Home Office covers arrests for recorded crime (notifiable offences) only, broken down at a main offence group level, which includes the category of drug offences.From these centrally reported data we are not able to identify specific offences from within the main offence groups.The offence of possession of cannabis was added to the penalty notice for disorder (PND) scheme on 28 January 2009. Information on the number of PNDs issued in 2009 are due to be published in November 2010. Additionally information on notifiable offences detected in 2009-10 by means of a PND is due to be published in July 2010.

Secondary information