Asked by: Sarah Jones (Labour - Croydon West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many offenders who went on to commit a serious further offence were classified as (a) high risk, (b) medium risk and (c) low risk in each year since 2010.
Answered by Edward Argar
The table below sets out the total number of convictions, where an offender subject to probation supervision was charged with a serious further offence (SFO), which resulted subsequently in a conviction for an SFO, for all cases notified to what is now HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) between 1 January 2010 and 31 March 2022, listed by their highest classification of risk of serious harm during the period of supervision for the index sentence (though not necessarily the classification at the point they were charged with the SFO).
Year | Highest risk of serious harm during the index sentence | |||
| Very High / High | Medium | Low | Unknown |
2010 | 100 | 128 | 34 | 12 |
2011 | 93 | 129 | 25 | 23 |
2012 | 117 | 92 | 25 | 29 |
2013 | 107 | 104 | 25 | 27 |
2014 | 124 | 97 | 17 | 24 |
2015 | 116 | 130 | 21 | 30 |
2016 | 148 | 119 | 31 | 11 |
2017 | 191 | 139 | 36 | 19 |
2018 | 137 | 141 | 33 | 17 |
2019 | 165 | 129 | 21 | 17 |
2020 | 154 | 104 | 23 | 12 |
2021 | 162 | 92 | 13 | 9 |
2022 (Jan-Mar) | 37 | 23 | 10 | 3 |
1. Time period for conviction data relates to the date of SFO notification to HMPPS not the date of conviction.
2. Index sentence refers to the sentencing disposal imposed by the court which led to probation services supervision of the offender.
3.The risk of serious harm relates to the highest risk of harm assessed during the period of supervision on the index sentence, not at the time of the SFO.
4.The data concerning unknown risk of harm, may relate to cases where a formal risk assessment had not been completed during the index sentence, or was not captured at the point of notification, and has not been updated within the database.
5. The data includes cases where the SFO was committed within 28 days of the end of the supervision period.
6. Conviction data also includes cases where the offender committed suicide or died prior to the trial, where the judicial process concluded that they were responsible.
7. The data has been updated and may differ to any original publication due to data cleansing, re-categorising and re-grouping. Data in the annual SFO bulletin is shown in financial years not calendar years as above.
8. Data Sources and Quality. We have drawn these figures from administrative IT systems which, as with some large-scale recording systems, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
Figures are published based on the date of SFO notification (charge) received by HMPPS. The lag between the date of publication and the conviction figures is to allow time for most cases to complete the criminal justice process. Figures for 2022/23 will be published in October 2024.
Serious further offences are incredibly rare, with fewer than 0.5% of offenders supervised by the Probation Service going on to commit serious further offences but each one is investigated fully so we can take action where necessary. We have also injected extra funding of more than £155 million a year into the Probation Service to deliver tougher supervision, reduce caseloads and recruit thousands more staff to keep the public safer.
Asked by: Sarah Jones (Labour - Croydon West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Prison Transfer Agreements were in place in each year since 2010.
Answered by Edward Argar
The removal of Foreign National Offenders is a Government priority and my department continues to work closely with the Home Office to maximise the number of deportations.
The total number of voluntary and compulsory Prisoner Transfer Agreements agreed since 2010 is set out below. For PTAs, the receiving country and their judiciary needs to consider and accept each individual transfer case.
Year: | Total PTA agreements |
2010 | 99 |
2011 | 99 |
2012 | 100 |
2013 | 100 |
2014 | 101 |
2015 | 102 |
2016 | 103 |
2017 | 103 |
2018 | 104 |
2019 | 106 |
2020 | 106 |
2021 | 107 |
2022 | 108 |
2023 | 110 |
2024 | 110 |
We are looking to negotiate new Prisoner Transfer Agreements with key EU Member States and wider-world countries. We signed a Prisoner Transfer Agreement with the Philippines in October 2023, and made a new arrangement with Albania in May 2023 to increase the number of transfers under the agreement signed in May 2022.
Asked by: Sarah Jones (Labour - Croydon West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many offenders were subsequently convicted of murder by index sentence in each financial year between 2010-11 and 2015-16.
Answered by Edward Argar
Serious Further Offences (SFOs) are rare. Fewer than 0.5% of offenders under statutory supervision are convicted of SFOs. Nonetheless, every single SFO is taken extremely seriously, and in all cases a review is carried out to identify any improvements that need to be made in the management of future cases.
We have increased funding for the Probation Service by an additional £155m a year to recruit staff, bring down caseloads and deliver better supervision of offenders in the community.
We have exceeded our recruitment targets for the last three years. As a result, over 4,000 trainee probation officers joined the Probation sService between 2020/21 and 2022/23, which we anticipate will start to reduce the number of cases held by a probation officer at any one time, with all the benefits which that brings in terms of the quality of risk assessment and risk management.
The table below sets out the total number of convictions where an offender subject to probation supervision was charged with a SFO which resulted in a conviction for murder, for all cases notified to HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) between 1 April 2010 and 31 March 2014.
Index Sentence | 2010-11 | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 |
Community Supervision | 31 | 42 | 30 | 28 |
Determinate Prison Sentence | 17 | 24 | 21 | 27 |
Life Licence | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
IPP | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Total | 50 | 67 | 51 | 59 |
1. Time period for conviction data relates to the date of SFO notification to HMPPS not the date of conviction.
2. Index sentence refers to the sentencing disposal imposed by the court which led to probation services supervision of the offender.
3. The data only includes convictions for serious further offences of murder that have been notified to the national SFO Team, HMPPS.
4. The data includes cases where the SFO was committed within 28 days of the end of the supervision period.
5. Conviction data also includes cases where the offender committed suicide or died prior to the trial, where the judicial process concluded that they were responsible.
6. The data for has been updated and may differ to any original publication due to data cleansing, re-categorising and re-grouping.
7. Data Sources and Quality. We have drawn these figures from administrative IT systems which, as with some large-scale recording systems, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
The number of convictions where an offender subject to probation supervision was charged with a serious further offence which resulted in a conviction for murder, for all cases notified to HMPPS between 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2016 are published at the following link: Serious_Further_Offences_2023.ods (live.com).
Asked by: Sarah Jones (Labour - Croydon West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been prosecuted for criminal damage to memorials since that offence was introduced; and what sentences were issued to people prosecuted for that act.
Answered by Edward Argar
For criminal damage offences, the specific target of the criminal damage is not recorded in the Court Proceedings Database and so it is not possible to distinguish criminal damage to memorials from wider criminal damage. This information may be held on court records but to examine individual court records would be of disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Sarah Jones (Labour - Croydon West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) charges and (b) prosecutions have been made under the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act 1975 in each year since 2010.
Answered by Edward Argar
The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of defendants prosecuted for offences under the Salmon & Freshwater Fisheries Act 1975 (offence code 11606) between 2013 and 2021 across the following data tools:
The number of prosecutions for offences under the Salmon & Freshwater Fisheries Act 1975 between 2010 and 2012 has been provided in Table 1.
The Home Office collects information on charges for the number of offences under the Salmon & Freshwater Fisheries Act 1975. Data is available from April 2015 to September 2022 and has been provided in table 2. Charges are low as police recorded crime collection is largely restricted to indictable and triable either way offences and excludes those prosecuted by other authorities.
This is a subset of data (Wildlife crime) released in the quarterly Crime and Outcomes open data tables, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tables
Heritage crime is not specifically defined in legislation as a criminal offence and therefore is not centrally recorded in the Court Proceedings Database held by the Ministry of Justice. To obtain information on whether an offence was related to heritage assets would involve a manual interrogation of court records which would result in disproportionate cost to the department. The Home Office does not collect data on the number of charges for this offence.
Offences that may be of interest include:
09408 - Executing or causing the demolition or alteration or an extension which affects the character of a listed building
09409 - Failure to comply with a Listed Building enforcement notice
09406 - Contravening tree preservation order
Asked by: Sarah Jones (Labour - Croydon West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been (a) charged and (b) prosecuted for heritage crimes in each year since 2010.
Answered by Edward Argar
The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of defendants prosecuted for offences under the Salmon & Freshwater Fisheries Act 1975 (offence code 11606) between 2013 and 2021 across the following data tools:
The number of prosecutions for offences under the Salmon & Freshwater Fisheries Act 1975 between 2010 and 2012 has been provided in Table 1.
The Home Office collects information on charges for the number of offences under the Salmon & Freshwater Fisheries Act 1975. Data is available from April 2015 to September 2022 and has been provided in table 2. Charges are low as police recorded crime collection is largely restricted to indictable and triable either way offences and excludes those prosecuted by other authorities.
This is a subset of data (Wildlife crime) released in the quarterly Crime and Outcomes open data tables, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tables
Heritage crime is not specifically defined in legislation as a criminal offence and therefore is not centrally recorded in the Court Proceedings Database held by the Ministry of Justice. To obtain information on whether an offence was related to heritage assets would involve a manual interrogation of court records which would result in disproportionate cost to the department. The Home Office does not collect data on the number of charges for this offence.
Offences that may be of interest include:
09408 - Executing or causing the demolition or alteration or an extension which affects the character of a listed building
09409 - Failure to comply with a Listed Building enforcement notice
09406 - Contravening tree preservation order
Asked by: Sarah Jones (Labour - Croydon West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) charges and (b) prosecutions have been made under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 in each year since 2010.
Answered by Edward Argar
For prosecutions under the Hunting Act 2004, please see response to PQ 105521.
The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of defendants prosecuted for offences under Section 30 of the Game Act 1831 between 2010 and 2021 across the following data tools:
2010-2016: Outcomes by Offence data tool: December 2020.
2017-2021: Outcomes by Offence data tool: December 2021.
Please note, ‘119 Day Poaching’ includes offences under both section 30 and section 31 of the Game Act 1831. However, no prosecutions were made under section 31 offences during this time period.
The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of defendants prosecuted for offences under the Deer Act 1991 and under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 between 2013 and 2021 across the following data tools:
2013-2016: Principal offence proceedings and outcomes by Home Office offence code data tool.
2017-2021: Outcomes by Offence data tool: December 2021.
The number of prosecutions for offences under the Deer Act 1991 between 2010 and 2012 has been provided in Table 1 and 2. The Home Office does not collect data on the number of charges for this offence.
Asked by: Sarah Jones (Labour - Croydon West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) charges and (b) prosecutions have been made under the Deer Act 1991 in each year since 2010.
Answered by Edward Argar
For prosecutions under the Hunting Act 2004, please see response to PQ 105521.
The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of defendants prosecuted for offences under Section 30 of the Game Act 1831 between 2010 and 2021 across the following data tools:
2010-2016: Outcomes by Offence data tool: December 2020.
2017-2021: Outcomes by Offence data tool: December 2021.
Please note, ‘119 Day Poaching’ includes offences under both section 30 and section 31 of the Game Act 1831. However, no prosecutions were made under section 31 offences during this time period.
The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of defendants prosecuted for offences under the Deer Act 1991 and under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 between 2013 and 2021 across the following data tools:
2013-2016: Principal offence proceedings and outcomes by Home Office offence code data tool.
2017-2021: Outcomes by Offence data tool: December 2021.
The number of prosecutions for offences under the Deer Act 1991 between 2010 and 2012 has been provided in Table 1 and 2. The Home Office does not collect data on the number of charges for this offence.
Asked by: Sarah Jones (Labour - Croydon West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prosecutions have been made under Section 30 of the Game Act 1831 in each year since 2010.
Answered by Edward Argar
For prosecutions under the Hunting Act 2004, please see response to PQ 105521.
The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of defendants prosecuted for offences under Section 30 of the Game Act 1831 between 2010 and 2021 across the following data tools:
2010-2016: Outcomes by Offence data tool: December 2020.
2017-2021: Outcomes by Offence data tool: December 2021.
Please note, ‘119 Day Poaching’ includes offences under both section 30 and section 31 of the Game Act 1831. However, no prosecutions were made under section 31 offences during this time period.
The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of defendants prosecuted for offences under the Deer Act 1991 and under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 between 2013 and 2021 across the following data tools:
2013-2016: Principal offence proceedings and outcomes by Home Office offence code data tool.
2017-2021: Outcomes by Offence data tool: December 2021.
The number of prosecutions for offences under the Deer Act 1991 between 2010 and 2012 has been provided in Table 1 and 2. The Home Office does not collect data on the number of charges for this offence.
Asked by: Sarah Jones (Labour - Croydon West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prosecutions have been made under the Hunting Act 2004 in each year since 2010,
Answered by Edward Argar
For prosecutions under the Hunting Act 2004, please see response to PQ 105521.
The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of defendants prosecuted for offences under Section 30 of the Game Act 1831 between 2010 and 2021 across the following data tools:
2010-2016: Outcomes by Offence data tool: December 2020.
2017-2021: Outcomes by Offence data tool: December 2021.
Please note, ‘119 Day Poaching’ includes offences under both section 30 and section 31 of the Game Act 1831. However, no prosecutions were made under section 31 offences during this time period.
The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of defendants prosecuted for offences under the Deer Act 1991 and under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 between 2013 and 2021 across the following data tools:
2013-2016: Principal offence proceedings and outcomes by Home Office offence code data tool.
2017-2021: Outcomes by Offence data tool: December 2021.
The number of prosecutions for offences under the Deer Act 1991 between 2010 and 2012 has been provided in Table 1 and 2. The Home Office does not collect data on the number of charges for this offence.