Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many convictions there were for offences relating to animal cruelty in (a) England and (b) Wales in each year since 2015; and if he will make a statement.

The Ministry of Justice has published information on prosecutions and convictions relating to animal cruelty, in England and Wales, up to December 2019, available in the ‘Principal offence proceedings and outcomes by Home Office offence code’ data tool, here:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/938554/HO-code-tool-principal-offence-2019.xlsx

In the data tool linked above, use the ‘Offence’ filter to select the following offences:

• 108a Animal Cruelty under sections 4-8 under Animal Welfare Act 2006
• 108b Other Cruelty to animal offences

In order to specify data from Wales, use the ‘Police Force Area’ filter to select only North Wales, South Wales, Gwent and Dyfed-Powys. In order to specify data from England, select all forces except those above and ‘Special/miscellaneous and unknown police forces’