Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, what proportion of prosecutions for child sexual abuse involved the CPS accepting a defendant's guilty plea to lesser charges in 2017.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not maintain a central record of the number of guilty pleas received and accepted to lesser charges in all cases, including defendants prosecuted for the offences created by sections (a) 5 to 9, (b) 16 and (c) 25 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. This information could only be obtained by examining CPS case files, which would incur disproportionate cost

However, data is available for the number of defendants whose prosecution was completed, where the case has been flagged as child abuse, and where the principal offence at finalisation is categorised as a sexual offence.

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 allegations or crimes perpetrated by both adults and under 18s.

During each of the last three years, the number of defendants entering a guilty plea, in cases flagged as child abuse and whose principal offence was identified as a sexual offence, is as follows:

It is not possible to disaggregate figures to show separately the volume and outcome of proceedings for individual offences within the Sexual Offences Category. A single defendant may be charged with more than one offence.