Animal Welfare: Sentencing
(asked on 17th July 2017) - View Source
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 6 July 2017 to Question 1556, how many people have received the maximum six months imprisonment for the most serious cases of animal cruelty in each of the last five years.
The number of offenders sentenced to immediate custody for the maximum penalty for offences under Sections 4 to 8 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006, in England and Wales, from 2012 to 2016, can be viewed in the table below.
Defendants sentenced to the maximum penalty (1) for offences under selected sections of the Animal Welfare Act 2006, England and Wales, 2012 to 2016 (2)(3) | |||||
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Section of Act | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 |
4 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
5 | - | - | - | - | - |
6 | - | - | - | - | - |
7 | - | - | - | - | - |
8 | - | - | - | - | - |
'-' = Nil | |||||
(1) Six months imprisonment | |||||
(2) The figures given in the table relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe. | |||||
(3) Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. | |||||