Data on the number of prosecutions and convictions under the Video Recording Act 1984, as amended by the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, in England and Wales 1997 to 2006 can be found in the table.
Information available to the Ministry of Justice relating to the Video Recording Act 1984 and amendments do not give the age of the customer, only the defendant. It is also not possible from the information held to distinguish prosecutions from other offences under the Act for the sale of video games or DVD’s.
Court proceedings data for 2007 will be available in the autumn of 2008.
Prosecuted Found guilty Proportion (%) successful (i.e. number found guilty as a proportion of those prosecuted) 1997 161 146 91 1998 141 127 90 1999 225 163 72 20005 187 167 89 2001 167 149 89 2002 157 139 89 2003 124 102 82 2004 169 132 78 2005 101 89 88 2006 104 81 78 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. 3 Some of the statistics relate to illegal sales but it is not possible to tell whether these were necessarily sales to children. 4 Includes the following statutes and offence description: Video Recording Act 1984, Sec 11 as amended by Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, Sec 88(4). Supplying video recording of classified work in breach of classification. Video Recording Act 1984, Sec 9 as amended by Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, Sec 88. Supplying video recording of unclassified work. Video Recording Act 1984, Sec 10 as amended by Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, Sec 88. Persons video recording of unclassified work for the purpose of supply. Video Recording Act 1984, Sec 12 as amended by Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, Sec 88(5). Certain video recordings only to be supplied in licensed sex shops. Video Recording Act 1984 Sec 13. Supply of video recording not complying with requirements as to labels etc. Video Recording Act 1984, Sec 14 as amended by Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, Sec 88(6). Supply of video recordings containing false indication as to classification. 5 Staffordshire police force were only able to submit sample data for persons proceeded against and convicted in the magistrates courts for the year 2000. Although sufficient to estimate higher orders of data, these data are not robust enough at a detailed level and have been excluded from the table. Source: Court Proceedings Database held by RDS Office for Criminal Justice Reform—Ministry of Justice