Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, how many referrals were made about child abuse to the Crown Prosecution Service by the police in each of the last five years; and how many such cases resulted in subsequent (a) prosecutions and (b) convictions.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) maintains a central record of the number of cases of child abuse, referred for a pre-charge decision or prosecuted, by way of a monitoring flag.

The CPS definition of child abuse covers any case where the victim was under 18 years of age at the time of the offence and includes physical, emotional and sexual criminal offences, as well as neglect of a child and Non-recent child abuse where the victim is now an adult. It includes allegations or crimes perpetrated by both adults and under 18s. The data is accurate only to the extent that the flag has been correctly applied.

During each of the last five years the number of pre-charge decisions made against suspects alleged to have committed offences involving child abuse is as follows:

Data Source: CPS Case Management Information System

In the same period, the number of defendants prosecuted and convicted, in cases flagged as child abuse is as follows:

Data Source: CPS Case Management Information System

This information is available within the CPS’s annual ‘Violence against Women and Girls Report 2013-14’.