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Dogs

Answer

Information showing the number of defendants found guilty at all courts for offences under section 3(1) and 3(3) of the 1991 Dangerous Dogs Act in England and Wales from 2003 to 2007 (latest available) can be viewed in the following table. The information provides both the number of cases where injuries were inflicted and also the number of cases where no injuries were inflicted.The Court Proceedings Database held by the Ministry of Justice does not hold specific information on the age of the victims beyond descriptions provided by the statutes under which prosecutions are brought.Data for 2008 are planned for publication at the end of January 2010.

Number of defendants found guilty at all courts for selected offences under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, England and Wales 2003-07¹,²
		Found guilty
Offence description	Section of the Act	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Owner or person in charge allowing dog to be dangerously out of control in a public place injuring any person	S.3(1)	302	350	403	458	456
Owner or person in charge allowing dog to be dangerously out of control in a public place, no injury being caused	S.3(1)	171	167	168	160	205
Owner or person in charge allowing dog to enter a non-public place and injure any person	S.3(3)	33	25	25	29	27
Owner or person in charge allowing dog to enter a non-public place causing reasonable apprehension of injury to a person	S.3(3)	10	5	9	11	15
Total		516	547	605	658	703
¹ The number proceeded against and number found guilty 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.
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 police forces and the courts. 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:
Evidence and Analysis unit—Office for Criminal Justice

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

497 c1456-8W; 293657

Session

2008-09

Subjects

Dogs

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

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