Written question asked by Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat) on Thursday, 25 March 2004, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 19 April 2004. It was answered by Paul Goggins (Labour) on Monday, 19 April 2004 on behalf of the Home Office.

Home Office

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many prosecutions have been made in each of the last three years for ticket touting (a) in person, (b) through published advertisements, (c) via internet auction sites and (d) through other means; how many were successful in each case; what the average length of custodial sentence was in each case; and if he will make a statement. - Inc table and fact that no information is held centrally on the circumstances of each case.

Answer: Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prosecutions have been made in each of the last three years for ticket touting (a) in person, (b) through published advertisements, (c) via internet auction sites and (d) through other means; how many were successful in each case; what the average length of custodial sentence was in each case; and if he will make a statement. [164487] Paul Goggins: Defendants proceeded against and those convicted of offences of ticket touting under section 166 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 in England and Wales, 2000 to 2002, are shown in the table. No information is held centrally on the circumstances of each case. The offence is not one that attracts a custodial penalty. Number of defendants1 proceeded against and found guilty under section 116 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 (ticket touting), England and Wales 2000 to 2002 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Defendants proceeded against Defendants found guilty 2000 163 140 2001 126 94 2002 127 91 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. 1 These data are on the principal offence basis Statistics on court proceedings for 2003 will be published in the autumn.

Secondary information