Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how many agricultural crime offences in Calderdale District resulted in suspects being (a) charged, (b) convicted and (c) not convicted in each year since 2010.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The Government recognises the impact that crimes of theft have on all our communities, whether rural or urban, and we are committed to tackling the problem.
There is no specific legal definition of agricultural crime and therefore data on it cannot be collated. However, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) holds data on the number of prosecutions where the principal offence category was theft and handling stolen goods.
It is important to note that CPS principal offence category data is only extracted from the Case Management Information System once the prosecution case has been finalised, this means that the following offence data only relates to completed prosecutions and not any ongoing prosecutions.
From 2010 to date, the CPS has prosecuted 57,641 cases with a theft and handling stolen goods principal offence category originating from the West Yorkshire police force area. Of these, 52,286 resulted in a conviction and only 5,355 resulted in an acquittal.