Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were prosecuted under section 51A (soliciting) of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 in each year between 1988 and 2018.

The number of people prosecuted under section 51A of the Sexual Offences Axes 2003 for the years 2010 to 2017 can be viewed in the table.

Data is provided from 2010 onwards as section 51A was inserted into the Sexual Offences Act 2003 by the Policing and Crime Act 2009 and as such did not come into effect until 1 April 2010. Therefore, 2010 is the earliest year for which data is available.

National Statistics on court outcomes for 2018 are planned for publication in May 2019.

This data relates to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When an offender has been dealt with for two or more offences at the same time the principal offence is the more serious offence.