Cannabis

Home Department written question – answered at on 5 September 2011.

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Photo of Shaun Woodward Shaun Woodward Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) arrests, (b) prosecutions and (c) convictions for (i) possession and (ii) supply of cannabis in St Helens South and Whiston constituency there have been in each of the last five years.

Photo of James Brokenshire James Brokenshire The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department

Information reported to the Home Office on arrests is not broken down below offence group level, therefore it is not possible to identify specific offences from the 'drug offences' offence group.

The table, provided by the Ministry of Justice, shows the number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts for possession, supply and possession with intent to supply cannabis in Merseyside police force area, 2006 to 2010 (latest available).

Court proceedings data collated centrally by the Ministry of Justice are not available at parliamentary constituency level.

Court proceedings data for 2011 are planned for publication in the spring, 2012.

Defendants proceeded against at the magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts for possession, supply and possession with intent to supply cannabis, Merseyside, 2006-10 (1, 2, 3)
  2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Merseyside police force area Proceeded against Found guilty Proceeded against Found guilty Proceeded against Found guilty Proceeded against Found guilty Proceeded against Found guilty
Possession cannabis 424 386 1,074 1,022 1,491 1,416 2,256 2,128 2,671 2,431
Possession with intent to supply cannabis 49 52 71 51 92 71 99 76 148 103
Supply cannabis 13 17 19 23 39 30 15 19 21 25
(1) The figures given in the table on court proceedings relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe. (2) Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. (3) Cannabis was re-classified to a class B drug on 26 January 2009. Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services—Ministry of Justice.

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