Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 10 March 2021 to Question 161718, on Ivory: Smuggling, under which category of offence in his Department's Court Proceedings Database have offences related to ivory smuggling been recorded in the last five years; how many people have been prosecuted for this category of offence in each of the last five years; how many of those prosecutions have resulted in (a) convictions, (b) custodial sentences, and (c) non-custodial sentences; and what the average fine was for people receiving a non-custodial sentence for this category of offence in the last five years.

It is not possible to identify prosecutions and outcomes for the specific offence of ivory smuggling as it is not separately identified in legislation.

Offences involving but not limited to ivory smuggling may be found within the following offences:

• 099/17 - Triable either way offences under the Control of Trade in Endangered Species Regulations 2018, paragraph 1
• 099/18 - Triable either way offences under the Control of Trade in Endangered Species Regulations 2018, paragraph 2
• 099/96 - Triable either way offences under Animal & Animal Products (Import & Export) (No.2) Regulations 2004
• 099/99 - Other triable either way (non-motoring) offences

The Ministry of Justice holds published information on prosecutions, convictions and sentences under the above offences, in the ‘Principal offence proceedings and outcomes by Home Office offence code’ data tool, available here:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/938554/HO-code-tool-principal-offence-2019.xlsx

In order to determine whether ivory was smuggled in any offences within the categories identified would require a manual search of court records which would incur disproportionate costs.