Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prosecutions for the use of nitrous oxide have been brought in each year since the introduction of the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016.

The Ministry of Justice has published data on the number of prosecutions and convictions in England & Wales up to December 2019. This data is available 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/888344/HO-code-tool-principal-offence-2019.xlsx

Select the pull down for ‘Detailed Offence’, and in the field search bar type ‘psychoactive substance’ and select all the options that appear.

The total number of prosecutions under the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 in each year since 2016 can be found in row 31 of the pivot table.

To identify the number of prosecutions specifically for use of nitrous oxide under the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 would require a manual search of court records as this level of detail (specific substance) is not held within the courts proceedings database; which would be of disproportionate cost.