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Written question asked by Priti Patel (Conservative) on Thursday, 24 November 2011, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 28 November 2011. It was answered by Crispin Blunt (Conservative) on Wednesday, 30 November 2011 on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

Telephones: Nuisance

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prosecutions have taken place following complaints made by the recipients of unwelcome, nuisance or obscene telephone calls and text messages in each of the last five years.
Answer

I have been asked to reply.The number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts for offences involving ““Improper use of electronic communications network”” under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003, in England and Wales, from 2006 to 2010 (latest available) can be viewed in the following table.The Ministry of Justice court proceedings database holds information on offences provided by the statutes under which proceedings are brought but not all the circumstances of each case. It is therefore not possible to identify from these centrally held data whether a prosecution has been made following a complaint from a recipient of unwelcome telephone calls or text messages.Court proceedings data for 2011 are planned for publication in the spring of 2012.

Number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts for offences under the Communications Act 2003, England and Wales, 2006-10¹,²
2006 2007 2008³ 2009 2010
Communications Act 2003, s.127 Sending or causing sending of grossly offensive/indecent/obscene/menacing or false message/matter by electronic communications network 550 680 872 1,126 1,511
¹ The figures given in the table on court proceedings 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 it 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 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.
³ Excludes data for Cardiff magistrates court for April, July and August 2008.
Source:
Justice Statistics Analytical Services—Ministry of Justice

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
83700; 536 c972-3W
Session
2010-12
Subjects
Nuisance Telephones
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk