Mr. MalinTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prosecutions have taken place(a) for acts intended or likely to stir up racial hatred under sections 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22 of the Public Order Act 1986 and (b) under the Race Relations Act 1976; how many convictions resulted; and what were the (i) minimum and (ii) maximum sentences imposed. [12659]
§ Angela EagleThe available information, provided by the Attorney-General's Office, relates to England and Wales for the years 1988 to date and is contained in the table. This relates to the number of applications for consent to prosecute for each year and the number of convictions resulting from the prosecutions. The whole of Part III of the Public Order Act 1986 is covered in the table, therefore including section 23 in addition to those sections requested.
The records relate to the year that the application for consent to prosecute was dealt with and so it is not possible to state with any certainty how many prosecutions resulted in convictions in any given year. Also, there are no centrally held records that can provide reliable information as to the minimum and maximum sentence imposed in any given year.
The Race Relations Act 1976 no longer includes provision for prosecuting offences of incitement to racial hatred, this having been transferred to Part III of the Public Order Act 1986.
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