Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the highest number of previous offences was that a convicted person committed for that same offence before receiving a sentence other than an immediate non-custodial sentence for offences relating to (a) possession of a blade or point, (b) possession of an offensive weapon, (c) common assault, (d) assaulting a police officer, (e) sexual assault, (f) public order, (g) theft, (h) robbery, (i) burglary, (j) drugs, (k) criminal damage, (l) breach of anti social behaviour order, (m) fraud and (n) vehicle taking in each of the last three years.

Information on the highest number of previous cautions and convictions an offender had for a specified offence type before receiving a custodial sentence, covering the period 2021 to 2023, can be viewed in the attached table.

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.