Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases have (a) gone to trial and (b) been successfully prosecuted for breaches of the Hunting Act 2004 in County Durham in each of the last five years.

The number of defendants⁽¹⁾ prosecuted and the outcomes of those prosecutions for offences under the Hunting Act 2004 in County Durham over the last five years can be found in the Court Outcomes by Police Force Area data tool in the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/733996/court-outcomes-by-pfa-2017-update.xlsx

• Select ‘Durham’ from ‘Police Force Area’.
• Select ‘121A Offences under Hunting Act 2004’ in Offence.
• For the number of prosecutions, filter ‘Court Type’ by ’02: Magistrates Court’.
• Filter by ‘outcomes’, or for the number of convictions remove filtering from ‘Court Type’, and select ’01: Convicted’ from ‘Convicted/Not Convicted’.

These figures are provided on a principal offence basis. When a defendant has been prosecuted for two or more offences, the principal offence is the offence for which the heaviest penalty would be imposed.

In addition, Police Force Area refers to the location where the defendant was dealt with, not where the offence was committed.

⁽¹⁾Figures are published by defendants prosecuted, rather than trials.