Offences against Children

Asked by: Gavin Shuker (Independent - Luton South)

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, how many people have been charged with paying for sexual services of a child under section 47 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 where (a) the victim was under 18, and those charged did not reasonably believe that the victim was 18 or over and (b) the victim was under 13 in each of the last three years.

Answered by Robert Buckland

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not maintain a central record of the number of defendants prosecuted for offences brought under section 47 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 or the ages of victims. This information could only be obtained by examining CPS case files, which would incur disproportionate cost. However, records are held showing the overall number of offences, rather than defendants, in which a prosecution commenced at magistrates’ courts. These are detailed below.

Note: A single defendant may be prosecuted for multiple offences.