Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been (a) arrested, (b) charged and (c) convicted under section 53A of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 in each calendar year since 2016; and what penalty was imposed in cases of conviction.

The Home Office collects and publishes statistics on the number of arrests for notifiable offences, conducted by each police force in England and Wales, on an annual basis.

Data are held at the offence group level only (for example ‘Violence against the person’ and ‘Sexual offences’). Information specifically on the number of arrests for offences under section 53A of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 are not held centrally.

Data are published in the ‘Police Powers and Procedures, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin, the latest of which can be accessed here:

Police powers and procedures England and Wales statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The Home Office collects and publishes statistics on the number of charges for notifiable offences, for each police force in England and Wales on a quarterly basis.

This includes ‘Soliciting for the purpose of prostitution’ under section 53A of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

Data are published in the ‘Police recorded outcomes’ tables, the latest of which can be accessed here: Police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The Ministry of Justice holds information on convictions under 53A of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 up to December 2020, available in the ‘Principal offence proceedings and outcomes by Home Office offence code’ data tool, available here:https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/987731/HO-code-tool-principal-offence-2020.xlsx

Use the ‘Offence code’ filter to isolate the following offence:

• 16702 - Paying or promising to pay a person to provide sexual services, where that person is subject to exploitative conduct to induce or encourage them to provide those services

Convictions will populate Row 33 and sentence outcomes will populate rows 34 to 42.