Asked by: Gareth Johnson (Conservative - Dartford)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many applications under the unduly lenient sentence scheme have been rejected due to falling outside the remit of that scheme in each of the last five years.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The Government has committed to extending the scope of the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme and is carefully considering its approach.
The number of offenders who have had their sentence increased under the unduly lenient sentence scheme in each of the last five years is set out below.
Year | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 |
Offenders who have had their sentence increased by the Court of Appeal | 95 | 62 | 61 | 106 | 102 |
Some cases attract multiple referrals from various sources and we do not record how many referrals each case has received. The total number of cases where requests were received by the Attorney General’s Office for sentences to be reviewed in each of the last five years is set out below.
Year | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 |
Total number of referrals received by the Attorney General’s Office for sentences to be reviewed under the scheme | 377 | 435 | 498 | 674 | 713 |
The number of sentences referred to the Court of Appeal under the unduly lenient sentence scheme that were (a) increased and (b) kept the same in each of the last five years is set out below.
Year | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 |
Total number of sentences referred to the Court of Appeal | 117 | 82 | 70 | 122 | 136 |
Total number of sentences that were increased | 95 | 62 | 61 | 106 | 102 |
Total number of sentences that remained unchanged | 22 | 20 | 9 | 16 | 34 |
The number of referrals under the unduly lenient sentence scheme that have been rejected due to falling outside the remit of the scheme in each of the last five years is set out below.
Year | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 |
Number of referrals that have been rejected due to the offence falling outside the remit of the scheme | 62 | 75 | 131 | 194 | 228 |
Number of referrals received out of time | 3 | 12 | 9 | 10 | 16 |
Asked by: Gareth Johnson (Conservative - Dartford)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many reported cases of unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl aged 13 to 16 under section 6 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956 were not prosecuted because of the 12 month statute of limitations for that offence in the last (a) year, (b) five years and (c) 10 years.
Answered by Oliver Heald
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not hold records of the number of cases reported to the police or of the number the police decide not to proceed with. A record is held of the number of cases where the CPS has been asked to make a charging decision and the decision made; either to charge or take no further action.
However, no central records of the alleged offence(s) considered at the pre-charge decision are held by the CPS. To obtain details of the number of allegations of unlawful sexual intercourse offences considered and those which do not proceed, either by way of decision to take no further action or discontinuance following charge, due to the 12 month Statute of Limitations would require a manual exercise of reviewing individual case files to be undertaken at a disproportionate cost.