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Offences against Children: Plea Bargaining

Answer

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not maintain a central record of the number of guilty pleas received and accepted to lesser charges in all cases, including defendants prosecuted for the offences created by sections (a) 5 to 9, (b) 16 and (c) 25 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. This information could only be obtained by examining CPS case files, which would incur disproportionate cost

However, data is available for the number of defendants whose prosecution was completed, where the case has been flagged as child abuse, and where the principal offence at finalisation is categorised as a sexual offence.

The CPS definition of child abuse covers any case where the victim was under 18 years of age at the time of the offence and allegations or crimes perpetrated by both adults and under 18s.

During each of the last three years, the number of defendants entering a guilty plea, in cases flagged as child abuse and whose principal offence was identified as a sexual offence, is as follows:

	2015-2016	2016-2017	2017-2018
Guilty Pleas	3,578	4,127	3,689
% Guilty Pleas	57.6%	57.5%	57.8%
Total Prosecuted	6,217	7,181	6,378

It is not possible to disaggregate figures to show separately the volume and outcome of proceedings for individual offences within the Sexual Offences Category. A single defendant may be charged with more than one offence.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

229165

Session

2017-19

Grouped for answer

Yes

Subjects

Offences against children Plea bargaining

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk