Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, on how many occasions in each year since 2000 women who might have been convicted of murder have received a verdict of infanticide under section 1(2) of the Infanticide Act 1938.

The number of offenders found guilty of infanticide at all courts, in England and Wales, from 2005 to 2015 can be viewed in the annual criminal justice statistics publication linked below. The number of offenders found guilty of infanticide at all courts, in England and Wales, from 2000 to 2004, can be viewed in the table attached. (Court proceedings data for 2016 is planned for publication on 18 May 2017.)

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-december-2015

Any woman charged with the murder of her own child under 12 months of age could, in certain circumstances, be convicted of the alternative offence of infanticide and therefore it would be possible for any such defendant to make a defence that she was instead guilty of infanticide. The data on those who use infanticide as a defence is not held centrally and can only obtained at disproportionate cost.