Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, how many police officers have been charged by the CPS and then acquitted after a trial in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) maintains a central record of the number of suspects and defendants identified as being persons serving with the police. This definition will include police staff, community support officers and contracted escort and detention officers in addition to serving police officers.

The table below shows the number of charging decisions made by the CPS, where suspects were flagged as being persons serving with the police, in each of the last five years.

Records are also kept showing the outcomes of prosecutions, including convictions and acquittals after trial. The table below shows the number of acquittals after trial, where defendants were flagged as being persons serving with the police, in each of the last five years.

These figures are identified by way of a monitoring flag, administered by a member of staff highlighting it as a “Police complaint” case.