Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of cases brought under section 2 of the Football (Offences) Act 1991 have resulted in a conviction since 2020.

This Government is committed to preventing violence and disorder at football matches and works closely with stakeholders including the police and football authorities to ensure the police and courts are empowered to tackle football-related violence and disorder.

Section 2 of the Football (Offences) Act 1991 (‘the Act’) creates the offence of missile throwing at designated football matches in England and Wales.

Published data on prosecutions and convictions for offences under section 2 of the Act for the last five years are shown in the table below and can be found on GOV.UK here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-june-2024

Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly: June 2024 - GOV.UK

We do not centrally collate data relating to the proportion of cases resulting in a conviction under section 2 of the Act that did not have a recorded (a) injury and (b) victim.

We keep all legislation under review, but do not have any plans to reduce the scope of this Act.