Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of convictions for child sexual offences resulted in custodial sentences in (a) 2024, (b) 2014, (b) 2004 and (d) 1994.

The Ministry of Justice publishes data on the sentencing outcomes of criminal offences in England and Wales between the year ending June 2010 and year ending June 2024, in the Outcomes by Offence data tool, that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics page here: Criminal Justice Statistics.

Although child sex offences are not a defined category within the tool, you can filter offences using the HO Offence codes listed in the attachment linked above.

The proportion of convictions for child sexual offences resulted in custodial sentences is listed below. A list of specific offences that comprise the data below can be found in the accompanying attachment. We advise caution when comparing the 1994 data with more recent data included in the time series. This is due to differences in the way child sexual offences were defined.

Year Proportion

1994 48%

2004 65%

2014 72%

2024 (January-June) 59%

The average length of sentences for child sexual offences is as follows:

Year Average Custodial Sentence Length (Months)

1994 23.6

2004 40.2

2014 66.1

2024 (January-June) 75.3