Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many prosecutions for causing or inciting sexual exploitation of a child there have been under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 in each year since its enactment.
The Sexual Offences Act 2003 provides offences relating to the sexual exploitation of children, under Sections 10, 14 and 47 – 50.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) maintains a central record of the number of offences in which a prosecution commenced, including the offences charged by way of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.
Since the Act came into force, and up to the end of March 2020, the number of child exploitation offences charged by way of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 is as follows:
| Sexual Offences Act 2003 { 10 } | Sexual Offences Act 2003 { 14 } | Sexual Offences Act 2003 { 47 } | Sexual Offences Act 2003 { 48 } | Sexual Offences Act 2003 { 49 } | Sexual Offences Act 2003 { 50 } |
2004-2005 | 62 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
2005-2006 | 327 | 29 | 15 | 26 | 1 | 2 |
2006-2007 | 528 | 57 | 18 | 21 | 8 | 0 |
2007-2008 | 507 | 48 | 19 | 22 | 3 | 1 |
2008-2009 | 589 | 41 | 37 | 32 | 2 | 2 |
2009-2010 | 732 | 59 | 15 | 33 | 7 | 7 |
2010-2011 | 1001 | 92 | 12 | 51 | 4 | 8 |
2011-2012 | 949 | 83 | 18 | 57 | 3 | 17 |
2012-2013 | 943 | 78 | 26 | 90 | 8 | 10 |
2013-2014 | 995 | 81 | 36 | 89 | 9 | 39 |
2014-2015 | 1310 | 132 | 49 | 198 | 3 | 31 |
2015-2016 | 1556 | 163 | 79 | 277 | 11 | 11 |
2016-2017 | 2020 | 190 | 38 | 263 | 15 | 67 |
2017-2018 | 1978 | 184 | 57 | 191 | 7 | 28 |
2018-2019 | 1240 | 100 | 48 | 160 | 7 | 7 |
2019-2020 | 977 | 277 | 33 | 72 | 0 | 4 |
Data Source: CPS Case Management Information System |
There is no indication of the number of individual defendants prosecuted for these offences or the final outcome of the prosecution proceeding or if the charged offence was the substantive charge at the time of finalisation. It is often the case that defendants will be prosecuted for more than one offence in the same set of proceedings.
It is not possible to separately report the nature of, or type of sexual exploitation carried out on victims of child sexual offences other than by manually examining case files at disproportionate cost.