HC Deb 01 February 2000 vol 343 cc512-3W
Mr. Clapham

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many cases were reported to the police alleging sexual abuse in the last year for which figures are available in(a) South Yorkshire and (b) the United Kingdom; how many cases progressed to a court hearing in (a) and (b); and how many in each category resulted in a conviction. [107519]

Mr. Charles Clarke

The number of alleged sexual abuse cases reported to the police is not available. The total number of sexual offences recorded by the police, and the number of prosecutions and convictions for sexual offences for South Yorkshire, and England and Wales, are as follows.

South Yorkshire England and Wales
Number of sexual offences recorded in year ended June 1999 676 37,104
Number of prosecutions for sexual offences in year ended June 19991 143 7,726
Number of convictions2 for sexual offences in year ended June 19991 109 4,375
1 Includes provisional figures
2 Includes persons proceeded against in earlier years or for other offences

It should be noted that as the recorded crime figures relate to offences, and the number of prosecutions and convictions relate to offenders, the two types of data cannot be directly compared.

Mr. Clapham

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many convictions for sexual abuse of children under the age of 10 years there were in the last year for which figures are available, in(a) South Yorkshire and (b) the United Kingdom. [107520]

Mr. Charles Clarke

The information is not available centrally.

The Home Office Court Proceedings Database does not hold information about the characteristics of individual cases (in this instance the age of a victim) apart from those that are evident from the description of the offence with which the defendant has been charged.