Offences against Children: Sentencing

(asked on 8th September 2014) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) men and (b) women convicted of sexual activity with a child received (i) a conditional discharge, (ii) a fine, (iii) a community order and (iv) a suspended prison sentence in each of the last five years.


Answered by
Mike Penning Portrait
Mike Penning
This question was answered on 15th October 2014

All sexual offences are abhorrent and the most serious offences carry severe maximum penalties. The average custodial sentence length for all sexual offences has increased from 49.3 months in 2009 to 59.1 months in 2013, and between 2011 and 2013 the average custodial sentence length for rape of a child under 13 has increased from 108.6 months to 134.1 months (female victims) and from 103.3 months to 129 months (male victims) . This Government has also introduced an automatic life sentence for a second very serious sexual, or violent, offence and is legislating to end automatic early release for all dangerous offenders.

There is a range of offences covering sexual activity with a child (which does not include rape) the most serious of which has a maximum penalty of 14 years’ custody. Sentencing in individual cases is a matter for our independent courts, which must follow sentencing guidelines issued by the independent Sentencing Council. The Council recently issued a new sentencing guideline on sexual offences, following full public consultation. As well as physical harm, the new approach in the guideline will reflect more fully the psychological and longer term effects on the victim, enabling courts to take into account the true extent of what the victim has been through. No women have been convicted of these particular offences from 2009 to 2013. Data for those adult male offenders found guilty and sentenced at all courts for sexual activity with a child in England and Wales from 2009 to 2013 is available in the public domain as part of the Criminal Justice Statistics annual publication. The link below accesses a table labelled as ‘CJS outcomes by offence, 2009 to 2013’.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-statistics-quarterly-december-2013

The custody rate for the offence can be viewed in the table below.

Reticulating Splines