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Perjury

Volume 472: debated on Tuesday 4 March 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prosecutions for (a) perjury and (b) attempting to pervert the course of justice were brought in each of the last five years. (190057)

The number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts for offences relating to perjury and attempting to pervert the course of justice in England and Wales in the years 2002 to 2006 can be viewed in the following table.

Number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts for offences relating to perjury and attempting to pervert the course of justice, in England and Wales for the years 2002 to 20061,2

Proceeded against

Offence

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

Perjury

109

137

155

138

110

Pervert the cause of justice

2,646

2,396

2,088

1,972

1,804

Total

2,755

2,533

2,243

2,110

1,914

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 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.

Source:

RDS—Office for Criminal Justice Reform - Ministry of Justice