Data from the court proceedings database held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform showing the number of defendants found guilty at all courts for simple and aggravated drunkenness offences in (i) England, (iii) Suffolk, (iv) Bedfordshire, (v) Cambridgeshire, (vi) Essex, (vii) Hertfordshire, (viii) Norfolk police force area, 1997-2005 can be viewed in the following table.
In addition, under the penalty notice for disorder (PND) scheme, the police can issue a fixed penalty of £80 to a person for being drunk and disorderly. The number of PNDs issued for the offence are also included in the table.
From the court proceedings database it is not possible to identify those offenders in the Bury St. Edmunds constituency, as the data are not collected at this level of detail.
Force/area 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Drunkenness, simple Bedfordshire 62 153 99 55 29 24 53 26 41 4— Cambridgeshire 40 35 40 48 53 51 69 48 52 4— Essex 200 185 140 125 99 44 11 15 6 4— Hertfordshire 20 47 59 38 29 18 19 18 14 4— Norfolk 65 71 70 61 68 66 77 48 46 4— Suffolk 109 92 99 72 54 61 64 87 32 4— England 3,333 3,710 3,134 2,579 2,424 2,201 1,999 1,674 1,436 4— Drunkenness, with aggravation Bedfordshire 145 186 199 163 161 170 188 101 73 4— Cambridgeshire 100 126 137 134 136 137 176 156 153 4— Essex 422 389 453 472 438 346 180 188 164 4— Hertfordshire 251 296 348 340 358 445 401 318 223 4— Norfolk 102 111 113 137 140 140 172 82 54 4— Suffolk 254 194 197 202 244 301 317 293 198 4— England 22,474 23,864 22,764 22,078 21,468 22,741 23,893 17,550 13,199 4— Penalty notices for disorder Bedfordshire Drunk and disorderly behaviour * * * * * * * 144 265 293 Drunk in a highway * * * * * * * 13 43 14 Cambridgeshire Drunk and disorderly behaviour * * * * * * * 189 357 260 Drunk in a highway * * * * * * * 34 90 67 Essex Drunk and disorderly behaviour * * * * * * * 714 634 859 Drunk in a highway * * * * * * * 24 38 33 Hertfordshire Drunk and disorderly behaviour * * * * * * * 208 319 207 Drunk in a highway * * * * * * * 9 30 15 Norfolk Drunk and disorderly behaviour * * * * * * * 79 93 88 Drunk in a highway * * * * * * * 34 56 24 Suffolk Drunk and disorderly behaviour * * * * * * * 267 377 345 Drunk in a highway * * * * * * * 35 27 26 England Drunk and disorderly behaviour * * * * * * * 25,591 34,896 39,774 Drunk in a highway * * * * * * * 2,387 2,930 2,387 * = figures not applicable, as penalty notices were not introduced until 2004. 1 These data are on the principal offence basis. 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, police forces, and other agencies. 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. 3 2006 PND (Penalty Notices for Disorder) data are provisional. 4 Court proceedings data for 2006 will be available in the autumn of 2007. Source: RDS Office for Criminal Justice Reform.