Animal Welfare: Prosecutions
Solicitor-General
Written answers and statements, 29 October 2009
Frank Field (Birkenhead, Labour)
To ask the Solicitor-General how many prosecutions for offences of cruelty to animals were brought by (a) the Crown Prosecution Service and (b) the Royal Society of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in the last five years.
Vera Baird (Solicitor General, Attorney General's Office; Redcar, Labour)
The figures at Table 1 show the number of offences of cruelty to animals in respect of which a prosecution was brought by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in each of the last five years.
Also, at Table 2, are figures showing the number of defendants (not offences) prosecuted by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) over the same period. RSPCA prosecutions are broken down to show the number and the proportion resulting in conviction and in dismissal, but no comparable analysis is available for the figures recorded by the CPS.
| Table 1: Crown Prosecution Service—Offences of Cruelty to Animals in which a prosecution commenced | |||||
| 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | |
| Total animal cruelty offences charged(1) | 222 | 214 | 227 | 273 | 240 |
| (1) Source: CPS Management Information System | |||||
| Table 2: Royal Society for the Pre vention of Cruelty to Animals— Defendant prosecuted for Cruelty to Animals | ||||||||||
| 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | ||||||
| Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | |
| Convictions | 870 | 95.8 | 980 | 96.7 | 898 | 95.7 | 1,104 | 97.2 | 1,222 | 97.6 |
| Dismissals | 38 | 4.2 | 33 | 3.3 | 40 | 4.3 | 32 | 2.8 | 30 | 2.4 |
| Total defendants prosecuted(1) | 908 | — | 1,013 | — | 938 | — | 1,136 | — | 1,252 | — |
| (1) Source: RSPCA | ||||||||||