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Written question asked by Paul Beresford (Conservative) on Friday, 16 February 2024, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 20 February 2024. It was answered by Robert Courts (Conservative) on Friday, 23 February 2024 on behalf of the Attorney General.

Prosecutions

Question

To ask the Attorney General, how many prosecutions under section 44 of the Serious Crime Act 2007 there have been in each of the last two years; and how many and what proportion of those cases involved a child being encouraged to commit an offence.

Answer

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not have a central record showing the number of defendants prosecuted under section 44 of the Serious Crime Act 2007 (the Act) or how many involved a child being encouraged to commit an offence. To obtain this information would involve a manual examination of CPS case files at disproportionate cost.

However, management information is held showing the number of offences charged by way of section 44 of the Act in which a prosecution commenced in the magistrates’ courts. The table below shows the number of these offences in each of the last two years.

2021-2022

2022-2023

Section 44 of the Serious Crime Act 2007

93

60

Data Source: CPS Case Management Information System

The figures relate to the number of offences and not the number of individual defendants. It is often the case that an individual defendant is charged with more than one offence against the same complainant. No data is held showing the final outcome or if the charged offence was the substantive charge at finalisation.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
13855
Session
2023-24
Subjects
Children Aiding and abetting Prosecutions
Legislation
Serious Crime Act 2007
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk