Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many children and young people have been convicted of drug offences in (1) 2015, (2) 2016, (3) 2017, and (4) 2018.

The number of children and young people (aged 10-17 years old) who were found guilty of drug offences in England and Wales from 2015 to 2017 can be viewed in the below table:

(1) The figures given in the table relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe.

(2) Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used.

Data for the number of children and young people convicted of drug offences in 2018 will be available in May 2019.