[holding answer 22 November 2006]: I have been asked to reply.
The information requested, taken from the Court Proceedings Database held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform showing the number of defendants found guilty at all courts for cruelty to animals under the Protection of Animals Act 1911, in England and Wales for the years 1980-2005 are provided in the following table. Data at this level of detail for years prior to 1980 are not available. It is not possible to identify which convictions were related to fireworks as the individual circumstances of these offences are not centrally collected.
Code 108/02 Convictions 1980 720 1981 719 1982 728 1983 747 1984 764 1985 848 1986 875 1987 889 1988 877 1989 895 1990 968 1991 862 1992 926 1993 861 1994 731 1995 754 1996 764 1997 867 1998 889 1999 828 2000 861 2001 754 2002 768 2003 783 2004 787 2005 843 1 These data are provided on the principal offence basis Note: 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 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. Source: RDS—Office for Criminal Justice Reform.