Asked by: Baroness Owen of Alderley Edge (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people have been convicted of sharing intimate images and given a custodial sentence.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on offenders sentenced to immediate custody for offences relating to sharing intimate images, at criminal courts in England and Wales, in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, which can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics Quarterly: June 2024.
This can be accessed by navigating to the ‘2. Sentence Outcomes’ tab and using the following HO offence codes;
08815 - Sharing or threatening to share intimate photograph or film
17508 - Share photograph or film of person in intimate state without consent
Offences relating to sharing intimate images came into force in January 2024 and up to end of June 2024, 3 offenders were sentenced to immediate custody.
Asked by: Baroness Owen of Alderley Edge (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many prisoners convicted of sharing intimate images have been released early.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The new Government inherited a justice system in crisis and took decisive action to stop our prisons from collapsing. When we replaced the previous Government’s early release scheme with SDS40, we specifically excluded sexual offences, including sharing intimate images without consent.
Data on SDS40 releases forms a subset of data intended for future publication.
Asked by: Baroness Owen of Alderley Edge (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to prevent individuals soliciting a deepfake non-consensual image from jurisdictions where there are no laws against creating and sharing such images and receiving the image in the UK.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
Creating deepfake sexual images without consent is immoral and unacceptable in society. The Government has tabled an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill that will criminalise those who create a sexual deepfake image without consent, and for the purposes of sexual gratification or to cause alarm, humiliation or distress. This builds on reforms introduced through the Online Safety Act which criminalised the sharing of, or threats to share, intimate images, including deepfakes, without consent.
Under sections 44 – 46 of the Serious Crime Act 2007, an individual who does not themselves commit a crime, may still face charges if they encourage or assist someone else to do so. These provisions will apply to the new deepfakes offence in the Criminal Justice Bill.
The situation is, however, more complicated if one or other of the people involved are not in England and Wales and whether a crime has been committed will depend on the specific facts of each case. This is because the jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales for acts committed overseas is limited.
Section 72 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, which in relation to some sexual offences extends the jurisdiction of the criminal courts of England & Wales to acts done overseas in certain circumstances, will not apply to the new offence. This is in line with standard Government policy that statutory extra-territorial jurisdiction should only be applied to serious and indictable offences, not summary offences. However, through the Criminal Justice Bill, we are making the two more serious offences of sharing intimate images (namely (i) sharing an intimate image without consent for the purpose of sexual gratification and (ii) sharing an intimate image without consent and with intent to cause alarm, distress or humiliation) subject to section 72 of the Sexual Offences Act , so that courts in England and Wales will have jurisdiction over those offences when committed abroad in certain circumstances.