Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been prosecuted under human trafficking laws in each year since 2010.
Answered by Gareth Bacon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of defendants prosecuted for offences under human trafficking laws, from 2010 to 2022, in the Outcomes by Offence data tool: December 2022, and from year ending June 2011 to the year ending June 2023, in the Outcomes by Offence data tool: June 2023:
Offences under sections 2(1), 4 and 30(1) and 30(3) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 can be found using following HO codes:
03608 - Conspire to arrange or facilitate travel of another person with a view to exploitation
03610 - Commit offence other than kidnapping or false imprisonment with intent to commit human trafficking offence
03611 - Commit offence of kidnapping or false imprisonment with intention of committing human trafficking offence
03612 - Breach a slavery and trafficking risk or prevention order
Offences under sections 57, 58, 59, 59A(1) of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 & Offences under sections 4 of the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Act 2004 can be found by using following offences:
72 Human trafficking for sexual exploitation
78.1 Human trafficking for non-sexual exploitation
These can be accessed by navigating to the ‘Prosecutions and convictions’ tab and using the HO Offence Code and Offence filters to select the above offences in the Outcomes by Offence data tool.
In 2015, the UK Government introduced the world-leading Modern Slavery Act, giving law enforcement agencies the tools to tackle trafficking, including maximum life sentences for perpetrators and enhanced protection for victims.
Since the Modern Slavery Act was passed in 2015, we have seen significant law enforcement activity focused on modern slavery, which has led to an increase in the number of live police modern slavery investigations.
This has also led to an increase in the number of prosecutions brought and convictions secured.
Measures under the Nationality and Borders Act came into force in 2023 which have helped clarify our obligations to providing support for victims of modern slavery.
Asked by: Sarah Dines (Conservative - Derbyshire Dales)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, with reference to the Answer of 20 January 2023 to Question 125287 on Rape: Prosecutions, how many (a) completed prosecutions and (b) convictions there were for sexual offences in each quarter from the start of January 2005 to the end of September 2015.
Answered by Robert Courts - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) holds management information on its Case Management System showing the number of defendants allocated the Principal Offence Category of Sexual Offences at completion of prosecution. The Principal Offence Category indicates the most serious offence with which a defendant is charged.
The table below shows the number of completed prosecutions and convictions for sexual offences from the start of January 2005 to the end of September 2015. The data provided in the table is in financial quarters.
‘Total completed prosecutions’ refer to the conclusion of a prosecution case against a defendant such as conviction after trial, guilty plea, acquittal, or the prosecution against the defendant being dropped. ‘Convictions’ refer to convictions after trial and guilty pleas.
Quarter | 04/05-Q4 | 05/06-Q1 | 05/06-Q2 | 05/06-Q3 | 05/06-Q4 | 06/07-Q1 | 06/07-Q2 | 06/07-Q3 |
Total completed prosecutions | 2,805 | 2,838 | 2,818 | 2,845 | 2,980 | 2,676 | 2,814 | 2,745 |
Convictions | 1,731 | 1,798 | 1,730 | 1,840 | 1,871 | 1,709 | 1,806 | 1,790 |
Quarter | 06/07-Q4 | 07/08-Q1 | 07/08-Q2 | 07/08-Q3 | 07/08-Q4 | 08/09-Q1 | 08/09-Q2 | 08/09-Q3 |
Total completed prosecutions | 2,894 | 2,730 | 2,837 | 2,753 | 2,779 | 2,704 | 2,834 | 2,633 |
Convictions | 1,908 | 1,861 | 1,890 | 1,909 | 2,045 | 1,949 | 1,989 | 1,864 |
Quarter | 08/09-Q4 | 09/10-Q1 | 09/10-Q2 | 09/10-Q3 | 09/10-Q4 | 10/11-Q1 | 10/11-Q2 | 10/11-Q3 |
Total completed prosecutions | 2,707 | 2,551 | 2,867 | 2,838 | 2,918 | 2,919 | 3,228 | 3,143 |
Convictions | 1,898 | 1,821 | 2,014 | 2,018 | 2,124 | 2,076 | 2,240 | 2,210 |
Quarter | 10/11-Q4 | 11/12-Q1 | 11/12-Q2 | 11/12-Q3 | 11/12-Q4 | 12/13-Q1 | 12/13-Q2 | 12/13-Q3 |
Total completed prosecutions | 3,182 | 2,828 | 3,000 | 2,945 | 2,962 | 2,693 | 2,749 | 2,840 |
Convictions | 2,200 | 2,019 | 2,154 | 2,120 | 2,148 | 2,021 | 1,958 | 2,081 |
Quarter | 12/13-Q4 | 13/14-Q1 | 13/14-Q2 | 13/14-Q3 | 13/14-Q4 | 14/15-Q1 | 14/15-Q2 |
Total completed prosecutions | 2,720 | 2,891 | 3,103 | 2,973 | 3,073 | 3,087 | 3,496 |
Convictions | 1,928 | 2,108 | 2,340 | 2,194 | 2,179 | 2,197 | 2,496 |
Quarter | 14/15-Q3 | 14/15-Q4 | 15/16-Q1 | 15/16-Q2 |
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Total completed prosecutions | 3,531 | 3,664 | 3,694 | 4,045 |
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Convictions | 2,486 | 2,623 | 2,674 | 2,876 |
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Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many civil servants in his Department have a criminal conviction.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The information requested is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.
New appointments to Defra undergo pre-employment criminal record checks. Where a conviction is flagged, appointment is dependent on a role-specific risk assessment. Convictions for the following offences result in the individual automatically failing pre-employment checks and not being appointed: life sentences, arson, sexual offences and hate and terror offences.
Defra has participated in the Going Forward into Employment Scheme for Ex-Offenders and has appointed to posts via this scheme. We can confirm that the numbers appointed under this scheme are currently less than 10. However, exact numbers may enable individuals to be identifiable and the privacy and confidentiality of this information requires us to ensure individuals are properly protected.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases of (a) rape and (b) serious sexual offences are outstanding 12 months after the accused was charged.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
Our published data includes the number of cases outstanding at the court from the point of crown court receipt rather than charge. As of Q3 2023, there were 667 adult rape cases and a further 2,019 cases of sexual offences (excluding adult rape) that had been outstanding at Crown Courts in England and Wales for 12 months or more.
We recognise that lengthy waiting times can be particularly difficult for victims of rape and other serious sexual offences who wish to see justice done and move on with their lives. We are doing everything we can to address the outstanding caseload. We are taking action to maximise capacity and hear more cases so we can minimise the impact on victims. As part of this, we are:
We are also ensuring that all victims of rape and sexual offences are well supported throughout their engagement with the criminal justice system. This includes delivering our 24/7 helpline service for victims of rape and sexual violence; quadrupling victim support funding by 2024/25, up from £41 million in 2009/2010; and increasing the number of Independent Sexual and Domestic Abuse Advisors by 300 to nearly 1,000.
These actions have been delivered as part of our Rape Review Action Plan, which included ambition to return the number of adult rape cases reaching court to 2016 levels. This ambition was hugely stretching, as 2015 and 2016 marked the years where adult rape prosecutions and convictions were at their highest recorded levels.
We have exceeded this ambition well ahead of schedule. Across July - September 2023 we recorded 665 Crown Court receipts for adult rape, exceeding our original 2016 ambition of 553 by 20%. In practice, this means we have more than doubled the number of adult rape cases reaching court compared to when the Rape Review was first commissioned (2019). The number of people prosecuted for rape is 32% higher than in 2010.
Mentions:
1: None There is a new national operating model for the investigation of rape and serious sexual offences, which - Speech Link
2: Baroness Thornton (Lab - Life peer) offending will be pursued—and not simply take convictions into account? - Speech Link
3: Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con - Life peer) presumption of dismissal for gross misconduct, a presumption of fast-track hearings for former officers and convictions - Speech Link
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many foreign national offenders who were removed from the UK were imprisoned for (a) sexual offences, (b) homicide and (c) assault in each year since 2019.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
The information requested about how many foreign national offenders (FNOs) were removed from the UK following convictions for (a) sexual offences, (b) homicide and (c) assault is not available from published statistics.
The Home Office does publish information on a quarterly bases on FNO returns and this can be found at Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Our priority will always be to keep the British public safe. That is why foreign nationals who abuse our hospitality by committing crimes should be in no doubt of our determination to deport them. Between January 2019 and September 2023, more than 16,000 FNOs have been removed from the UK.
Mentions:
1: None Offences Act 2003 is amended as follows.(2) In section 11(1) (engaging in sexual activity in presence - Speech Link
2: Laura Farris (Con - Newbury) in the Sexual Offences Act 2003. - Speech Link
3: Jess Phillips (Lab - Birmingham, Yardley) To be completely clear, those convicted in our family courts of sexual offences against children are - Speech Link
4: None Offences Act 2003 is amended as follows.(2) After section 70, insert—‘70A Sexual interference with a - Speech Link
Asked by: Lord Dobbs (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in each of the past five years in England and Wales, how many prosecutions were brought for rape and serious sexual assault; how many allegations of rape or serious sexual assault reported to police have not been taken to prosecution; and what percentage of prosecutions have resulted in conviction.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
This government is committed to increasing the volumes of rape and serious sexual offence cases that reach court.
In 2019, we commissioned our end-to-end Rape Review to better understand the justice system’s response to adult rape. Published in 2021, our watershed report set stretching ambitions to return the volumes of adult rape cases being referred by the police, charged by the CPS, and reaching court back to 2016 levels by the end of this Parliament. In practice, this meant more than doubling the number of adult rape cases reaching court compared to when the Review was first commissioned, in 2019.
The latest data shows that we have exceeded each of these ambitions ahead of schedule. In July – September 2023, we recorded:
In addition, the number of people prosecuted for an adult rape offence went up by 54% in the last year (12 months to June), rising from 1,410 to 2,165. This is 32% higher than in 2010 (1,644).
But we are determined to build on these successes, and continue to make excellent progress in delivering our Rape Review Action Plan to support victims throughout the criminal justice system:
As far as possible, we have provided the requested data in Tables 1-3. Please note that each table contains data extracted from different administrative systems, and for different operational purposes. Whilst every effort has been made to answer the question and keep the data similar it is important to note that the data presented is complementary, rather than directly comparable. Below is a summary of each table and its contents, including a final Annex table (Table A1) which specifies how offences for rape and serious sexual assault have been captured.
Table 1 – Volume of defendants proceeded against for rape or ‘serious’ sexual assault offences, year ending June 2019 to year ending June 2023, England and Wales
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) publish the data set out in Table 1 in Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly: June 2023, in the Outcomes by Offence data tool (last updated 18 January 2024).
The MoJ tool contains data on the volume of convictions, but it is advised these are not used to calculate conviction rate (the number of convictions as a proportion of the number of prosecutions). This is due to the Court Proceedings Database counting two separate records at two separate stages (one for prosecution, one for conviction). An individual may appear at each court in separate years, or for a different principal offence at different stages. As a result, this rate is not an accurate measure of the proportion of prosecutions that result in a conviction and we recommend table 3 for that purpose.
Table 2 – Rape and ‘serious’ sexual offences (RASSO) recorded by the police that were not assigned a charge outcome, as a proportion of all RASSO cases closed each year, year ending June 2019 to year ending June 2023, England and Wales
The Home Office (HO) publish the data set out in Table 2 in the quarterly publication Open Data Tables, in the Outcomes Open Data files (last updated on 25 January 2024). It is important to note that the Home Office do not hold data on prosecutions, but publish data on recorded cases that do not receive a charge outcome, presented in Table 2.
Table 2b – Number of reported incidents of rape (excluding offences recorded by the police) and cancelled rape offences, year ending March 2019 to year ending March 2023, England and Wales
Since April 2015, the police have been expected to record all allegations of rape that are reported to them as soon as they are received, unless they are immediately recorded as a confirmed crime. These are recorded under the reported incidents classification. Reported incidents of rape are then either confirmed as a crime and re-classified accordingly (as recorded offences) or are retained in the police data as an incident. Table 2b shows a total of reported incidents that do not go on to be recorded as a crime, and cancelled rape offences. An incident does not go on to be recorded as a crime if the victim or third party reporting the incident cannot confirm it or cannot be traced, if credible evidence to the contrary exists, or if it is transferred to another police force. These data are published here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/652eaab16b6fbf000db75843/prc-rape-incidents-2016-2023.ods). Rape allegations are ‘cancelled’ when there is additional information to confirm the offence did not take place or where the entry is made in error (such as a duplicate of an existing allegation). Home Office can be contacted directly for further comment on these data.
Table 3 – Conviction rate for suspects with a rape flagged offence, year ending June 2019 to year ending June 2023, England and Wales
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) publish the data set out in Table 3 in CPS quarterly data summaries (last updated on 18 January 2024). Prosecution crime type data tables were used to extract conviction rates for rape flagged cases. Due to the nature of CPS systems, the conviction rate based on rape flags will include cases where the eventual outcome is different to the flagged offence of rape.
Table A1: Definition of rape and 'serious' sexual assault by organisation (MoJ, Home Office, Crown Prosecution Service)
This table sets out how rape and ‘serious’ sexual assault offences have been selected for each of the tables. The most substantial difference is between CPS and MoJ/Home Office data, as the CPS rely on the use of flags and do not record offences by detailed offence code in the same way as the MoJ/Home Office (meaning detailed offences would need to be extracted manually, and are not published). Home Office and MoJ offences broadly correspond but, due to differences in recording practices and operational uses some of the offences follow different description conventions.
Correspondence May. 23 2024
Committee: Home Affairs Committee (Department: Home Office)Found: Letter from the Chair to the Home Secretary regarding the short inquiry into Non-contact sexual offences
Written Evidence Mar. 05 2024
Inquiry: Non-contact sexual offencesFound: NCSO0001 - Non-contact sexual offences Independent Advisor to the Rape Review Written Evidence