Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, how many prosecutions there have been for the offence of handling stolen goods as a result of the theft or resale of local authority library books in each of the last five years.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not maintain a central record of the number of handling stolen goods offences prosecuted as a result of the theft or resale of library books. This information could only be obtained by examining CPS case files, which would incur disproportionate cost.

While the CPS does not maintain a central record of the number of prosecutions arising out of the theft of local authority library books, records are held showing the number of offences of handling stolen goods in which a prosecution commenced.

The table below shows the number of these offences in each of the last five available years.

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.