Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people who were given an immediate custodial sentence of a year or less had (a) no, (b) one, (c) two, (d) three, (e) four, (f) five, (g) six, (h) seven, (i) eight, (j) nine, (k) 10 to 19, (l) 20 to 29, (m) 30 to 39 and (n) 40 or more previous convictions and cautions in each year since 2007.

The information requested is provided in the table attached with this answer. This table includes data, covering the period 2007 – 2023, on the number of offenders with a specified number of previous cautions and convictions who were sentenced to immediate custody for a year or less.

This data is not regularly published or held in an easily accessible format. The information supplied has been sourced from a complicated retrieval from the Police National Computer database.

It should be noted that sentencing decisions in individual cases are for the independent judiciary.