Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Keen of Elie on 19 February 2016 (HL6037), whether the Crown Prosecution Service's IT systems can undertake electronic searches of relevant records by character string; and if not, whether a system update is planned.
Answered by Lord Stewart of Dirleton - Advocate General for Scotland
There is no planned update or change to Crown Prosecutions Service’s existing IT systems to undertake electronic searches of relevant records by character string.
Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many prosecutions have been double flagged by the Crown Prosecution Service over the past three years using the flag for monitoring human trafficking, and the flag for monitoring child abuse.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) identify both human trafficking and child abuse cases by way of a database monitoring flag applied to the electronic case record.
The number of defendants prosecuted for flagged human trafficking offences where the child abuse flag was also applied are as follows:
2012-2013 | 2013-2014 | 2014-2015 |
19 | 59 | 24 |
The figures provided represent the number of defendants prosecuted. Cases of trafficking for child exploitation (particularly child sexual exploitation) can involve networks of multi-defendants who have sexually exploited young female victims. Therefore, in the relatively low numbers of cases cross flagged, a small number of additional cases in one year involving upwards of 9 to 12 defendants each will have a significant effect on the annual figures. This, in part, explains the reduction in the number of defendants prosecuted for both human trafficking and child abuse; down from 59 in 2013/14 to 24 in 2014/15.
Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many people have been charged under section 71 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 in each of the past three years.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not maintain a central record of the number of people who have been charged under section 71 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009. This information could only be obtained by examining CPS case files, which would incur a disproportionate cost.
Although it is not possible to identify the number of people charged with a particular offence, records are held showing the overall number of offences in which a prosecution commenced at magistrates’ courts. The table below shows the number of offences, rather than defendants, charged under section 71 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 for the last three financial years:
| 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | |
Coroners and Justice Act 2009 {71(1)(b) & (3)} | Knowingly hold another person in slavery/solitude | 20 | 3 | 28 |
Coroners and Justice Act 2009 {71(1)(b) & (3)} | Knowingly require another person to perform forced/compulsory labour | 0 | 15 | 3 |
Note: A single defendant may be prosecuted for multiple offences.
Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much compensation has been paid by the Treasury Solicitor in response to claims on behalf of victims of trafficking in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Wallace of Tankerness
Claims relating to human trafficking can arise in a range of different types of litigation –for example immigration, unlawful detention or claims under Article 4 of the ECHR (prohibition of slavery and forced labour).
The Treasury Solicitor’s Department does not maintain data which would readily enable claims from victims of trafficking to be distinguished from the other claims they handle. To obtain an accurate compensation figure would therefore involve disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Wallace of Tankerness on 7 July (WA 10), how many of the 59 defendants flagged for both human trafficking and child abuse in 2013–14 were prosecuted under (1) the Sexual Offences Act 2003, or (2) the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants) Act 2004.
Answered by Lord Wallace of Tankerness
Of the 59 defendants flagged for both human trafficking and child abuse in 2013-14, all 59 had at least one charge brought under either the Sexual Offences Act 2003, or the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants) Act 2004 or a charge of conspiracy to commit an offence under one of these two acts.
The charges are split as follows:
Number of Defendants | |
Sexual Offences Act 2003 | 50 |
Conspiracy to commit offence under SOA 03 | 8 |
Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants) Act 2004 | 1 |
Please note that some of the 50 defendants with charges under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 were also charged with a conspiracy to commit an offence under this act. The 8 defendants shown in the conspiracy row are those where there was no corresponding Sexual Offences Act 2003 charge.
Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Wallace of Tankerness on 7 July (WA 5), how many of the 53 offences charged under section 71 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 since 2011 were flagged for child abuse.
Answered by Lord Wallace of Tankerness
None of the 53 offences, charged under section 71 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 since 2011 were flagged for child abuse.
Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many prosecutions have been double flagged by the Crown Prosecution Service over the past three years using the flag for monitoring human trafficking and the flag for monitoring child abuse.
Answered by Lord Wallace of Tankerness
The Crown Prosecution Service identifies both human trafficking and child abuse cases by way of a database monitoring flag applied to the electronic case record.
The number of defendants prosecuted who were flagged for human trafficking offences and where the child abuse flag was applied are outlined in the table below. During the past year there has been an increase in the numbers of such cases investigated by law enforcement agencies and referred to the CPS for prosecution.
2011-2012 | 2012-2013 | 2013-2014 |
9 | 19 | 59 |
Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many times the Crown Prosecution Service has made a charging decision not to proceed on the use of section 71 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 in each of the last five years where the victim was under 18 at the time of commission of the offence.
Answered by Lord Wallace of Tankerness
The Crown Prosecution Service does not hold figures centrally for the number of cases where a decision was made not to charge under section 71 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, including those cases where the victim was under 18 at the time of commission of the offence. To obtain such information would require a manual examination of records which would incur a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many times the Crown Prosecution Service has made a charging decision not to proceed on the use of section 71 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Wallace of Tankerness
The Crown Prosecution Service does not hold figures centrally for the number of cases where a decision was made not to charge under section 71 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, including those cases where the victim was under 18 at the time of commission of the offence. To obtain such information would require a manual examination of records which would incur a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many times the Crown Prosecution Service has made a charging decision not to proceed on the use of sections 4(1), 4(2), and 4(3) of the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Act 2004 in each of the past five years where the victim was under 18 at the time of commission of the offence.
Answered by Lord Wallace of Tankerness
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not hold figures centrally for the number of cases where a decision was made not to proceed under sections 4(1), 4(2), and 4(3) of the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.), including cases where the victim was under 18 at the time of commission of the offence. To obtain such information would require a manual examination of records which would incur a disproportionate cost.