Since the Official Secrets Act 1989 came into force on 1 March 1990, no prosecutions and convictions have been counted by the Ministry of Justice under section 8 of the Act.
The court proceedings data held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences, the principal offence is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe.