Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Solicitor-General – in the House of Commons at 10:30 am on 19 June 2008.
Vera Baird
Solicitor General, Law Officers' Department
10:30,
19 June 2008
The CPS does not keep data that allow us to identify the number of prosecutions of children found working in cannabis factories; it keeps data on offences. I am, however, aware of one recent case in South Yorkshire in which a young boy was prosecuted for working in a cannabis factory. The CPS has guidance for prosecutors, which advises them that when a youth might have committed an offence involving cannabis cultivation and there is information that they have been trafficked—I assume that that is what the hon. Gentleman is talking about—there is a strong public interest in not prosecuting them at all.