Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of trends in the number of people under the age of 18 being prosecuted for possession of a knife (a) Wansbeck constituency, (b) the North East and (c) the UK since 2010.

The Ministry of Justice publishes data on prosecutions for England and Wales by Police Force Area. The number of defendants aged under 18 who were prosecuted for possession of an article with a blade or point, by police force area can be found in the Court outcomes by Police Force Area data tool found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/733996/court-outcomes-by-pfa-2017-update.xlsx

• The Wansbeck constituency falls within the ‘Northumbria’ Police Force Area, which can be selected in the ‘Police Force Area’ filter.
• To identify the North East, select ‘Cleveland’, ‘Durham’ and ‘Northumbria’ in the ‘Police Force Area’ filter.
• For the number of prosecutions, filter ‘Court Type’ by ’02: Magistrates Court’.
• For defendants aged under 18, select the relevant age ranges in the ‘Age Range’ filter.
• Select ‘10D Possession of an article with blade or point’ in the ‘Offence’ filter.

Figures for 2018 will be published in May 2019.

The MoJ does not hold figures for prosecutions by parliamentary constituency, or for other countries of the UK.