Justice written question – answered at on 25 July 2007.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people were cautioned for drug-related offences in each of the last 10 years; what average prison sentence was awarded for each different category of drug-related offence in each of those years; and what average prison sentence was served by those convicted of drug-related offences in each of the last 10 years, broken down by category of offence.
The information requested on cautions and the average immediate custodial sentence length, for the years 1995 to 2005, is contained in the tables.
This is confined to offences under the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979, the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 etc. as it is not possible to identify from the Court Proceedings database the number of other offences committed while persons are under the influence of drugs or those committed to finance a drugs habit.
Information on the average time served for all offences, by sentence length can be found in tables 10.1 and 10.2 of the Offender Management Caseload Statistics 2005, copies of which can be found in the House of Commons Library. This information is also available at the following websites:
For 2005:
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs07/hosb1806section10.xls
For 2004:
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs05/hosb1705section10.xls
For 2003:
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs04/hosb1504section10.xls
For the years before 2003 table 3.14 in Prison statistics England and Wales 2002 (CM 5996) gives average time served in prison under sentence by prisoners discharged from 1993 to 2002. Copies of this publication can be found in the House of Commons Library.
The data, which are obtained from the prison IT system, are not shown separately by offence because the numbers at this level of detail cannot be guaranteed.
These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system, and although shown to the last individual the figures may not be accurate to that level.
Table 1: Number of offenders cautioned for drug offences England and Wales, 1996-2005( 1,2,3) | |
Number cautioned | |
1996 | 47,471 |
1997 | 56,028 |
1998 | 58,733 |
1999 | 49,348 |
2000 | 41,104 |
2001 | 39,424 |
2002 | 44,921 |
2003 | 45,706 |
2004 | 32,620 |
2005 | 34,390 |
(1) These data are provided on the principal offence basis. (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 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) Formal warnings for cannabis possession were introduced nationally from April 2004. There were 39,258 formal warnings for cannabis possession in 2004-05 and 62,586 in 2005-06. Source: RDS—Office for Criminal Justice Reform |
Table 2: Average length of immediate custodial sentence( 1) for drug offences, all courts, England and Wales 1996-2005 | ||||||||||
Average length of sentence | ||||||||||
1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | |
Unlawful importation: | ||||||||||
Class A | n/a | n/a | 85.5 | 88.6 | 82.5 | 75.9 | 72.2 | 79.2 | 83.7 | 81.4 |
Class B | n/a | n/a | 37.4 | 36.6 | 32.6 | 31.0 | 25.0 | 29.7 | 40.8 | 62.6 |
Class C | n/a | n/a | 47.4 | 42.0 | 24.8 | 6.6 | 4.6 | 8.0 | 21.2 | 27.6 |
Class unspecified | 63.3 | 68.4 | 78.9 | 63.9 | 48.2 | 43.9 | 61.3 | 56.9 | 61.2 | 64.0 |
Unlawful exportation: | ||||||||||
Class A | n/a | n/a | 50.0 | 50.5 | 29.3 | 85.0 | 96.8 | 85.5 | 81.8 | 130.7 |
Class B | n/a | n/a | 45.0 | 40.0 | 17.5 | 84.0 | 25.5 | — | 53.0 | — |
Class C | n/a | n/a | — | — | — | 30.0 | — | — | — | 24.0 |
Class unspecified | 61.1 | 55.5 | 60.1 | 25.0 | 17.2 | 12.1 | 61.2 | 110.0 | 64.4 | 61.7 |
Production, supply and possession with intent to supply a controlled drug: | ||||||||||
Class A | 36.8 | 37.6 | 37.1 | 37.9 | 36.6 | 36.3 | 39.8 | 40.7 | 40.7 | 38.4 |
Class B | 13.8 | 13.6 | 13.8 | 14.0 | 14.6 | 16.2 | 16.8 | 15.8 | 17.6 | 20.2 |
Class C | 13.0 | 8.6 | 7.8 | 7.9 | 13.3 | 10.3 | 17.3 | 19.5 | 11.7 | 13.3 |
Class unspecified | 35.5 | 27.9 | 26.3 | 40.1 | 33.1 | 36.8 | 35.6 | 42.0 | 64.4 | 61.7 |
Possession of a controlled drug: | ||||||||||
Class A | 8.0 | 6.5 | 5.9 | 5.2 | 5.3 | 5.2 | 5.2 | 6.2 | 7.3 | 6.4 |
Class B | 5.2 | 4.4 | 4.2 | 3.1 | 3.2 | 3.5 | 3.4 | 4.0 | 3.7 | 4.7 |
Class C | 2.8 | 2.6 | 1.6 | 3.6 | 2.7 | 4.6 | 2.5 | 1.2 | 2.8 | 4.0 |
Class unspecified | 5.7 | 5.0 | 3.2 | 4.9 | 3.0 | 5.1 | 3.3 | 16.1 | 12.0 | 19.9 |
Other drug offences | 16.1 | 24.3 | 19.9 | 20.8 | 19.9 | 34.1 | 24.4 | 25.8 | 26.4 | 19.0 |
n/a = Not available. (1) Excludes life and indeterminate sentences. Note: These figures have been drawn from administrative data systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. Source: RDS-NOMS, Ministry of Justice |
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