Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of assaults on shop workers resulted in (a) a discharge, (b) a fine, (c) a community order, (d) a suspended custodial sentence and (e) an immediate custodial sentence in each of the last three years.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government recognises the damaging impact that violence and abuse can have on victims, businesses, and the wider community; and we are committed to tackling this issue.
The Home Office published their response to a call for evidence on assaults against shopworkers on 7 July: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/violence-and-abuse-toward-shop-staff-call-for-evidence
Court outcomes data centrally held by the Ministry of Justice does not identify the specific occupation of the victim. The information may be held on court record, however identification of the occupation of victims would require access court records to manually collect information, which would be of disproportionate cost.
The Ministry of Justice has published information on convictions and sentencing outcomes for ‘Common assault’ up to December 2019, available in the Outcomes by Offence data tool:
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many offences that were recorded as convictions for assaulting an emergency worker were assaults against (a) police officers, (b) NHS staff, (c) prison officers, (d) firefighters and (e) other emergency workers since the offence was introduced.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Never has the debt of gratitude we owe our emergency workers been greater, they are heroes who risk their lives to keep us safe. Assaulting an emergency worker is wholly unacceptable and we need to make sure that the criminal law can reflect the seriousness with which we take these crimes.
That is why the Government recently announced a consultation on doubling the maximum penalty for assaulting an emergency worker, in line with its manifesto commitment.
Court outcomes data centrally held by the Ministry of Justice does not identify the specific occupation of the victim. The exception to this is the summary offence ‘Assault on a constable’. This offence, albeit that it remains on the statute book with a maximum penalty of 6 months imprisonment, has been superseded by the triable either way offence of ‘Assault on an emergency worker’, which was introduced in November 2018. This offence has a maximum penalty of 12 months imprisonment and applies to the police, in addition to other categories of emergency workers.
The information may be held on court records, however identification of the occupation of victims would require access to these records to manually collect information, which would be of disproportionate cost.
The Ministry of Justice has published information on convictions and sentencing outcomes for the following offences: ‘Assault on a constable’, ‘Assault of an emergency worker’ and ‘Common assault’ up to December 2019, available in the Outcomes by Offence data tool:
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people convicted of assaulting an emergency worker since the offence was introduced had previously committed (a) zero, (b) between one and four, (c) between five and nine, (d) between 10 and 15, (e) between 16 and 25, (f) between 26 and 50, (g) between 51 and 75, (h) between 76 and 100, (i) between 101 and 150, (j) between 151 and 200 and (k) over 200 offences.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Obtaining the necessary information to answer these questions involves accessing the secure Police National Computer (PNC) system, which my relevant officials are unable to do at this time in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. I will write to the Hon Member in due course with the information requested, once my officials are able to safely access the PNC system, and will place a copy of my letter in the Library.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many youth offenders were sentenced for assault occasioning actual bodily harm, by (a) sex, (b) age and (c) perceived ethnicity in the last 12 months for which information is available.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Ministry of Justice has published information on sentencing up to December 2019. The number of youth offenders sentenced for assault occasioning actual bodily harm, by sex, age and ethnicity can be found in the ‘Outcome by offence data tool’, available here:
In the pivot table:
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 16 June to Question 54053 on Home Detention Curfew Breaches; how many of the offenders who were recalled for breaching their curfew were returned to prison for the remainder of their original sentence.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Offenders who are recalled to custody solely for a breach of the curfew conditions of their HDC licence must serve the remainder of their custodial term before being released after they have reached their automatic release date at the half-way point of the sentence.
Offenders who are on HDC and recalled to custody for breach of the other conditions attached to their licence by, for example, failing to comply with probation supervision or commiting an offence, may be dealt with by a “standard” or fixed-term recall, depending on the circumstances. In cases where the Secretary of State is not satisfied that the offender may be safely released at the end of the fixed term period, they will be given a standard recall and will be required to remain in custody until the end of the sentence, unless released earlier by the Parole Board or Secretary of State. Offenders on HDC who are given a fixed-term recall of 14 days (for sentences under 12 months) or 28 days will be released after the fixed-term has been served, or at the automatic release date, whichever is later.
It is not possible readily to show the number of offenders on HDC throughout each month and, therefore, the proportion of those who were reported for a potential breach. The table below gives the number of people on HDC at the end of each month of 2019 plus the total number of reports of potential breach of the curfew related conditions of HDC licences received from the electronic monitoring provider each month.
HDC Caseload and Reports of potential breach of curfew 2019 by month
Month | HDC caseload | Reports |
January | 2,835 | 605 |
February | 2,877 | 384 |
March | 2,950 | 384 |
April | 2,928 | 432 |
May | 2,956 | 452 |
June | 2,953 | 503 |
July | 2,884 | 510 |
August | 2,890 | 470 |
September | 2,807 | 449 |
October | 2,740 | 505 |
November | 2,827 | 407 |
December | 2,747 | 397 |
|
|
|
Total | N/A | 5498 |
1.The figures in this table have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large-scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
2. This table includes the number of prisoners on HDC at a fixed point each month and not the total number of offenders who have been on HDC at some point during the month.
3. This table includes the total number of reports received each month and not the total number of offenders reported for potential breach each month. Some will be reported for potential breach on more than one occasion across months.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 16 June 2020 to Question 54053, how many offenders were on home detention curfew in each month of 2019; and how many and what proportion of people were reported for breaching their curfew in each month of that time period.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Offenders who are recalled to custody solely for a breach of the curfew conditions of their HDC licence must serve the remainder of their custodial term before being released after they have reached their automatic release date at the half-way point of the sentence.
Offenders who are on HDC and recalled to custody for breach of the other conditions attached to their licence by, for example, failing to comply with probation supervision or commiting an offence, may be dealt with by a “standard” or fixed-term recall, depending on the circumstances. In cases where the Secretary of State is not satisfied that the offender may be safely released at the end of the fixed term period, they will be given a standard recall and will be required to remain in custody until the end of the sentence, unless released earlier by the Parole Board or Secretary of State. Offenders on HDC who are given a fixed-term recall of 14 days (for sentences under 12 months) or 28 days will be released after the fixed-term has been served, or at the automatic release date, whichever is later.
It is not possible readily to show the number of offenders on HDC throughout each month and, therefore, the proportion of those who were reported for a potential breach. The table below gives the number of people on HDC at the end of each month of 2019 plus the total number of reports of potential breach of the curfew related conditions of HDC licences received from the electronic monitoring provider each month.
HDC Caseload and Reports of potential breach of curfew 2019 by month
Month | HDC caseload | Reports |
January | 2,835 | 605 |
February | 2,877 | 384 |
March | 2,950 | 384 |
April | 2,928 | 432 |
May | 2,956 | 452 |
June | 2,953 | 503 |
July | 2,884 | 510 |
August | 2,890 | 470 |
September | 2,807 | 449 |
October | 2,740 | 505 |
November | 2,827 | 407 |
December | 2,747 | 397 |
|
|
|
Total | N/A | 5498 |
1.The figures in this table have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large-scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
2. This table includes the number of prisoners on HDC at a fixed point each month and not the total number of offenders who have been on HDC at some point during the month.
3. This table includes the total number of reports received each month and not the total number of offenders reported for potential breach each month. Some will be reported for potential breach on more than one occasion across months.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the ethnicity was of (a) the perpetrator and (b) the victim in each case of (i) grievous bodily harm/unlawful wounding, (ii) grievous bodily harm/wounding with intent and (iii) attempted murder in each of the last three years.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The Ministry of Justice has published data on the number of prosecutions and convictions, including the ethnicity of the defendants, in England & Wales up to December 2019. This data is available here:
Principal offence proceedings and outcomes by Home Office offence code data tool
Select ‘Offence’ and search: (i) ‘8F Wound/ inflict grievous bodily harm without intent’, (ii) ‘5A Wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm’ and (iii) ‘2 Attempted murder’. Open the field list (click anywhere on the table) then drag and drop the ‘Ethnicity’ variable from the ‘filters’ box into the ’rows’ box.
The total number of convictions for defendants of each ethnic group since 2013 will be shown in rows 39-44.
The Ministry of Justice does not hold information on victim characteristics unless specified in statute.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many offenders released on home detention curfew in each of the last three years breached their curfew condition; and what proportion of those offenders were subsequently recalled to prison.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The following table gives the number of offenders released on HDC who were reported for potential breach of the curfew related conditions of their release licence, and the number and proportion who were recalled for such breaches in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 |
Breach Reports | 2,019 | 4,085 | 4,832 |
Recalls | 649 | 1,484 | 2,183 |
Proportion of Recalls | 32% | 36% | 45% |
1.The figures in this table have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large-scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
2. A small number of recalls may be based on breach reports received the preceding year. For example, a recall on 1 January might be based on a breach report received on 31 December.
Where a report of potential breach of the curfew related conditions from the electronic monitoring provider is received, officials acting on behalf of the Secretary of State must decide whether there has in fact been a breach and, if so, what action should be taken. Having regard to all the offender’s overall level of compliance and to what the breach indicates as to the offender’s risk, s/he might be recalled to prison or issued with a warning. In some cases, no action will be taken, for example, where the offender had a verified legitimate reason for being absent from the curfew address.
HDC is a robust scheme which allows suitable, risk assessed, prisoners to work towards rehabilitation in the community, while remaining subject to strict monitoring and other conditions. If they breach these, they can be returned to custody.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prosecutions for the use of nitrous oxide have been brought in each year since the introduction of the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Ministry of Justice has published data on the number of prosecutions and convictions in England & Wales up to December 2019. This data is available in the Principal offence proceedings and outcomes by Home Office offence code data tool available here:
Select the pull down for ‘Detailed Offence’, and in the field search bar type ‘psychoactive substance’ and select all the options that appear.
The total number of prosecutions under the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 in each year since 2016 can be found in row 31 of the pivot table.
To identify the number of prosecutions specifically for use of nitrous oxide under the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 would require a manual search of court records as this level of detail (specific substance) is not held within the courts proceedings database; which would be of disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners have married since 23 March 2020.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The information requested is not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.