Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Answer of 2 February 2026 to Question 109196, how many people have been convicted of common assault and battery; and how many of these people did not receive an immediate custodial sentence, by year of conviction and number of previous occasions the offender has been convicted for a violence against the person offence, and where that offence was common assault or battery, where the number of occasions was 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9+ previous convictions.

The data requested is provided in the attached excel table. The table includes data covering the period 2020 – 2024 on the number of offenders who were convicted of common assault and battery offences who did not receive an immediate custodial sentence; separated by the number of previous occasions the offender had been convicted for a violence against the person offence where that offence was common assault and battery.

Previous convictions are already a statutory aggravating factor, with Sentencing Guidelines being clear that sentencers must consider the nature and relevance of previous convictions, and the time elapsed since the previous convictions.