Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many scrap metal operators were prosecuted for (a) not holding a licence and (b) paying cash for scrap metal in the last three years; and how many and what proportion of those prosecutions resulted in a conviction.

The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of defendants prosecuted and convicted for offences under the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 (offence code 19534) within the last three years, in the following tool:

• Outcomes by Offence Data Tool: June 2022.

A breakdown of the prosecutions and convictions for (a) not holding a licence and (b) paying cash for scrap metal for year ending June 2020 to year ending June 2022, issued at all courts in England and Wales, has been provided in Table 1 on a principal offence basis.