Written question asked by Gordon Prentice (Labour) on Thursday, 4 March 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 8 March 2010. It was answered by Claire Ward (Labour) on Thursday, 11 March 2010 on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

Blackmail

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people convicted of the offence of blackmail since 1990 were sentenced to a period of imprisonment of seven years or more.

Answer

The available information is provided in the table as follows:

Custodial sentences of at least seven years for blackmail¹, 1993-2008
	Total
1990	1
1991	5
1992	6
1993	4
1994	4
1995	7
1996	10
1997	8
1998	2
1999	10
2000	5
2001	12
2002	5
2003	5
2004	4
2005	2
2006	18
2007	1
2008	4
¹ S.21 Theft Act 1968. Notes: 1. These figures have been drawn from administrative data systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. 2. The data have been taken from the Ministry of Justice Court Proceedings database. The data are presented on the principal offence basis. Where an offender has been sentenced for more than one offence the principal offence is the one for which the heaviest sentence was imposed. Where the same sentence has been imposed for two or more offences the principal offence is the one for which the statutory maximum is most severe.

Secondary information