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Incoming requests for mutual legal assistance to freeze assets must be sent to the UK Central Authority (UKCA) based in the Home Office. If the request is accepted by the Home Office, the UKCA will refer the request to the CPS, or the SFO, for action.

When the UKCA forwards the request to either organisation, specialist prosecutors work with financial investigators to prepare a restraint application for the Crown court. If the Crown court grants the application for restraint, the suspect, defendant and any third parties will be ordered not to dissipate the assets covered by the restraint order. Breaches of the order are dealt with as a contempt of court. In some cases a management receiver may be appointed to take control of identified assets.

When the requesting state has a final confiscation order, which is not subject to an appeal, the CPS or SFO may be requested to enforce the order.

In respect of the amount of money frozen at the request of overseas jurisdictions I refer the hon. Member to my answer of 6 May 2014, Official Report, column 8W.

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The following table shows how many of those arrested in Northern Ireland, under section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000, were subsequently charged with an offence

under any legislation except terrorism legislation (the latter would be classed as a terrorism offence, not a terrorism related one).

The reporting format for these statistics changed after 2008, from a calendar to financial year basis.

The number of people charged for terrorism-related offences in England and Wales is as follows:

The above data can also be accessed on the Gov.uk website at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/operation-of-police-powers-under-the-terrorism-act-2000-2012-to-2013

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It is not possible to identify domestic violence cases from the recorded crime figures returned to the Home Office by police forces as these figures are based on

counts of crime under the appropriate offence classification (e.g. GBH, ABH) and there are no details on the offender-victim relationship.

The records held by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) identify the number of suspects referred to it for a charging decision, the number of defendants prosecuted and the outcome of the prosecution, in cases identified and flagged as domestic violence. The CPS does not collect data showing the number of incidents of domestic violence reported to the police.

The CPS defines domestic violence as any threatening behaviour, violence or abuse (psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional) between those who are or have been intimate partners or family members, regardless of gender or sexuality. Family members include mother, father, son, daughter, sister and grandparents, whether directly related, in laws or step family.

The number of suspects referred to the CPS, for a charging decision since January 2010, for allegations of domestic violence was as follows:

In the same period, the numbers of defendants prosecuted by the CPS, and convicted of offences involving domestic violence, was as follows:

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For the purposes of the publication of transparency data, the Director of Public Prosecutions is regarded as a Permanent Secretary and in accordance with Cabinet Office guidelines must, like all Permanent Secretaries, publish details of meetings. These data are published on a quarterly basis and can be found on the CPS website as well as data.gov.uk.

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The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) maintains a record of the number of defendants prosecuted in twelve principal offence categories. The principal offence indicates the most serious offence a defendant is charged with at the time of finalisation. Four principal offence categories have been identified as comprising ‘violent offences’; homicide, offences against the person, robbery and sexual offences.

The CPS also keeps a central record, via the application of a case monitoring flag, of the number of defendants prosecuted where the offence(s) concerned domestic violence. It follows that defendants not flagged are not categorised as cases of domestic violence.

The following table sets out proportion of prosecutions for offence categories of homicide, offences against the person, robbery and sexual offences in each of the last three years, which were not identified and flagged as involving domestic violence.

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The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has issued comprehensive legal guidance to advise prosecutors of the steps they should take in cases where the police have arrested potential victims of trafficking who have committed criminal offences and referred them for charge. If information suggests that they have been trafficked, prosecutors are advised to make full enquiries and consider whether the case against them should be discontinued. However, a prosecutor can only take these steps if they have information from the police or other sources that a suspect might be a victim of trafficking.

Following recent cases in the Court of Appeal in which victims of trafficking were prosecuted and convicted, having been advised to plead guilty by their legal representative, the CPS is considering new guidelines for prosecutors, which are to be shared with the police and other law enforcement agencies and the Law Society to ensure a more joined-up approach in these cases.

Guidance, published in 2011 by the Child Exploitation On-line Protection Centre (CEOP), advises that police should be alert to the possibility that any person, adult or child, identified in a cannabis farm could be a victim of trafficking and the steps that they should take.

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The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) maintains a record of the number of child witnesses through the CPS Witness Management System (WMS). The WMS is a purpose built electronic system designed to enable Witness Care Unit (WCU) staff to identify cases involving children and other vulnerable witnesses and hence enable the proper management of issues arising in these cases. WMS is not intended to provide a definitive record of the number of victims and witnesses falling into these categories.

In the period April 2012 to March 2013, CPS Essex recorded 757 witnesses under 18 years of age and, of these, 207 were required to attend court. It should be noted that the CPS does not record in WMS whether a witness who attended court actually gave evidence or not.

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The following Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) data show the total number of conditional cautions that were issued in each of the last five years for each police force area. Further tables containing a detailed breakdown of data by offence category have been placed in the Library of the House. The number of conditional cautions issued is taken from defendant based data and not the number of offences committed. The total number of cautions issued will therefore differ from that noted in the breakdown of offence category.

Prior to 8 April 2013, a decision to issue a conditional caution was taken following consultation between the police and the CPS. The police are now able to issue a conditional caution without reference to the CPS in all categories of offences except for indictable only offences and those categorised as hate crime or domestic violence.

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The Crown Prosecution Service is not involved in advising the police to dispose of an offence via a community resolution order instead of charging.

A community resolution can be issued by a police officer to both adults and youths as a proportionate response to lower level crime.

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The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) data shows that a total of 3,157 offenders who breached their conditional caution were subsequently charged by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). A quarterly breakdown of the actions taken by the CPS, in the event of an offender not complying with the terms of the conditional caution, is set out in the following table:

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The information requested is not available in the form requested but tables containing a breakdown of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) figures by CPS areas have been placed in the Library of the House. Data to support this request is available only from the financial year 2007-08.

Supply and possession of drugs offences are prosecuted under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. The records held by the CPS identify the number of offences in which a prosecution commenced and reached a first hearing in magistrates courts, rather than the number of defendants prosecuted. The tables therefore show the number of

offences, rather than defendants, charged for supply and possession offences for the last five complete financial years. Offences for possession with intent to supply have been separated out for clarity. A single defendant may be charged with more than one offence.

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During the current spending review period the Crown Prosecution Service's (CPS) funding will decline by at least 6% per year until 2014-15. In broad terms we anticipate that each CPS area will see an equivalent reduction in spending. It is not possible to provide a specific spending reduction figure for Stoke-on-Trent as budgets and expenditure are not allocated by individual towns.