Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, how many prosecutions of offences under the Indecent Displays (Control) Act 1981 there have been in each year between 2009-10 and 2013-14.

The records held by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) indicate the number of offences charged, in which a prosecution was commenced at a magistrates’ court, rather than the identifying the number of people prosecuted.

During each of the last five years the number of offences charged by way of the Indecent Displays (Control) Act 1981 is as follows:

There is no indication of the number of individual defendants prosecuted for these offences or the final outcome of the prosecution proceeding or if the charged offence was the substantive charge at the time of finalisation. It is often the case that an individual defendant is charged with more than one offence.