Home Department written question – answered at on 22 June 2011.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people who were charged under Section (a) 2, (b) 3, (c) 4 and (d) 5 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 reached trial in each of the last 10 years; and in how many cases the person was found guilty.
Number of persons proceeded against at the magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts for offences under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, in England and Wales, 2000 to 2010 can be viewed in the table.
Charging data are not collected centrally by the Ministry of Justice.
Number of persons proceeded against at the magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts for offences under the Protection From Harassment Act 1997, England and Wales 2000-10 (1, 2) | ||||||||||||
2000 (3) | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 (4) | 2009 (5) | 2010 (6) | ||
Section 2 | Proceeded against | 5,977 | 5,873 | 5,843 | 5,891 | 5,974 | 5,679 | 5,447 | 5,134 | 5,046 | 5,448 | 6,108 |
Found guilty | 2,933 | 2,806 | 2,864 | 3,020 | 3,348 | 3,635 | 3,768 | 3,745 | 3,931 | 4,368 | 4,740 | |
Section 3 | Proceeded against | 40 | 31 | 44 | 50 | 42 | 25 | 34 | 71 | 99 | 65 | 68 |
Found guilty | 22 | 14 | 23 | 22 | 18 | 14 | 15 | 25 | 47 | 27 | 29 | |
Section 4 | Proceeded against | 1,752 | 1,651 | 1,601 | 1,593 | 1,494 | 1,592 | 1,512 | 1,306 | 1,352 | 1,519 | 1,465 |
Found guilty | 574 | 590 | 639 | 674 | 717 | 806 | 875 | 814 | 839 | 787 | 797 | |
Section 5 | Proceeded against | 802 | 776 | 847 | 900 | 991 | 1,129 | 1,108 | 884 | 1,177 | 1,618 | 3,349 |
Found guilty | 557 | 539 | 604 | 687 | 766 | 880 | 873 | 738 | 821 | 1,464 | 2,921 | |
(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) Staffordshire Police Force were only able to submit sample data for persons proceeded against and convicted in the magistrates courts for the year 2000. Although sufficient to estimate higher orders of data, these data are not robust enough at a detailed level and have been excluded from the table. (4) Excludes data for Cardiff magistrates court for April. July and August 2008. (5) Revisions have been made to 2009 figures to account for the late receipt of a small number of court records. (6) The following offence came into force on 30 September 2009. Breach of a Restraining Order issued on acquittal—Section 5A Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services within the Ministry of Justice. |
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