Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many prosecutions for (1) selling, and (2) supplying, age-rated video games to under-age children have taken place in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

Defendants proceeded against for selling or supplying age rated video games to under age children in England and Wales 2012 to 2016 can be viewed in the table below.

Defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts for selling or supplying age-rated video games ⁽¹⁾ to under-age children in England and Wales 2012-2016 ⁽²⁾⁽³⁾.

' - ' = Nil

(1) section 9(1) to 13(1)(3)(5) of the Video Recordings Act 1984.

(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) This information was obtained from a manual review of court case files that centrally held data indicated may be relevant, and as such has not been through the same quality assurance processes as for routinely published data. However, every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. It is also 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.

Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services - Ministry of Justice.