Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many (a) men and (b) women were (i) prosecuted and (ii) convicted for domestic abuse in (A) 2020-21 and (B) 2021/22.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) holds data showing the number of defendants flagged with a domestic abuse monitoring flag. These records can be separated to show the outcome of the prosecution and by the sex of the defendant. The table below shows the number of defendants, by sex, prosecuted and convicted in the two years ending March 2022.
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Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Attorney General:
What recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the extension to the unduly lenient sentence scheme.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The unduly lenient sentence scheme was extended to incorporate further serious offences, in November of last year.
The horrendous crime of stalking involving serious alarm or distress was one of the offences which was added.
I am pleased to tell the House that this extension meant I was able to refer a case recently to the Court of Appeal, one in which the sentence of the offender was more than doubled.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what steps the CPS is taking to improve the rate of prosecution of people responsible for crimes against disabled people.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The CPS is committed to improving prosecutions of disability hate crime. It has delivered mandated training on disability hate crime for all prosecutors, introduced a network of Hate Crime Coordinators in CPS Areas and revised its disability hate crime legal guidance. The CPS is currently working with community partners to develop further training based upon the social model of disability, aimed at removing barriers for disabled people and improving access to justice.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what steps the CPS is taking to strengthen (a) cross-agency and (b) international joint working in child abuse cases.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The use of technology means that there are more cases of child abuse that have an international element. Recent successful prosecutions in this field have seen early engagement between the CPS and the police, followed by close collaboration with our overseas prosecutors and international organisations, particularly the National Crime Agency.
Cases of online abuse have highlighted the importance of using expert evidence to demonstrate the true impact on victims, which then has a direct impact on sentence.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many people were (a) prosecuted for and (b) convicted of offences under the Wild Animals (Protection) Act 1996 in each police force area in England in 2015.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not maintain a central record of the number of people who have been charged with, and prosecuted for, offences brought by way of the Wild Mammals (Protection) Act 1996. This information could only be obtained by examining CPS case files, which would incur disproportionate cost.
Although it is not possible to identify the number of people charged with particular offences, records are held showing the overall number of offences in which a prosecution commenced in the magistrates’ courts. In 2015 there was one offence commenced under the Wild Mammals (Protection) Act 1996.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what steps the Crown Prosecution Service is taking to improve the number of successful prosecutions for human trafficking offences.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has issued guidance to strengthen prosecutions in support of the introduction of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. The CPS continues to deliver joint training with the police. The increased awareness and emphasis on working with the police to build stronger cases should lead to an improvement in the number of successful prosecutions.
The Director of Public Prosecutionsis hosting a summit with the Heads of the Prosecution Services in the UK and the Lord Advocate for Scotland in February 2016 to launch joint commitments to provide a more robust UK response to human trafficking and slavery.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what steps the CPS has recently taken to improve its support for (a) child witnesses and (b) people with learning disabilities who give evidence in criminal proceedings.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is committed to improving the ‘at court’ experience for all witnesses. The CPS works closely with the police and the voluntary sector to ensure that vulnerable witnesses such as children and people with learning disabilities are well supported through the Criminal Justice System.
Special measures such as the use of intermediaries, using screens at court and video live links help vulnerable witnesses, including children and people with learning difficulties, to give their best evidence. Recently, the CPS assisted the MoJ in recruiting an additional 105 intermediaries, who play a vital role in facilitating coherent conversations during police interviews and at court. The use of pre-recorded cross-examination has also been successfully piloted and the Lord Chancellor has committed publically to a national roll-out.
In September, following public consultation, the Director of Public Prosecutions announced the launch of new guidance for prosecutors entitled ‘Speaking to Witnesses at Court’. The aim of this guidance is to set out the role played by prosecutors at or before court in ensuring that witnesses give their best evidence. This will benefit all prosecution witnesses and will help them understand what to expect. These enhanced arrangements will be piloted over the coming months and will be rolled out nationally during 2016.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what steps his Department is taking to improve public understanding of the legal framework applicable to social media.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
Judging by the number of referrals from members of the public to my office there is clearly some awareness of the legal framework applicable to social media but I have sought to increase this awareness by, for example, issuing online warnings on social media, including Twitter, in appropriate cases.
In relation to the commission of criminal offences by social media users, the Crown Prosecution Service has also issued detailed guidelines to prosecutors on handling cases involving communications sent via social media.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what recent discussions he has had with the Director of Public Prosecutions about the performance of the Crown Prosecution Service in prosecuting child sexual abuse cases.
Answered by Robert Buckland
I have regular discussions with the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) on a wide range of criminal matters, including child sexual abuse (CSA) cases. The prosecution of CSA cases were specifically discussed at a meeting in February this year and the DPP outlined to me how the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is coordinating its response with the police to the Home Office CSA Inquiry.
In October 2013 the CPS issued guidelines setting out a new approach to CSA cases. Steps to be taken include the use of specialist prosecutors, the provision of dedicated CPS units to manage such cases, and the application of a new approach to considering evidence in such cases. In 2014-15, the number of child abuse prosecutions rose by 2,047 to 10,045, the highest volume of cases ever. There were 74.4% convictions in 2014-15, falling slightly from 76.2% in 2013-14, but overall there was a rise in the volume of convictions in the child abuse cases to 7,469 in 2014-15 from 6,096 in 2013-14.