Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the adequacy of section 69 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 in addressing acts of animal sexual abuse, including non-penetrative and coercive activity; and, for each of the past five years, how many cases of potential animal sexual abuse were reported to the police, how many resulted in a charge, and how many led to a successful prosecution.

The number of offences of intercourse with an animal recorded by police each year since 2020 varies from 40 to 57. Specifically, police recorded 40 of these crimes in 2020, 48 in 2021, 49 in 2022, 57 in 2023, 51 in 2024, 54 in the year up to June 2024 and 42 in the year up to June 2025. The proportion of recorded cases that resulted in a charge or summons varied from 20% to 2%.

The Home Office do not hold information on non-penetrative or coercive activity against animals.

The court proceedings database shows that the number of individuals proceeded against by criminal courts where the offence of intercourse with an animal was the principal offence was 4 in the year to June 2021, 1 in the years to June 2022, 2023 and 2024, and 0 in the year to June 2025.