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Prostitution: Offenders

Volume 485: debated on Thursday 11 December 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many people have been (a) prosecuted for and (b) convicted of common prostitution, loitering or soliciting for the purpose of prostitution under the terms of the Street Offences Act 1959 in each of the last two years; and how many of them were (i) UK citizens, (ii) EU foreign nationals and (iii) non- EU foreign nationals; (240569)

(2) how many people have been (a) prosecuted for and (b) convicted of placing an advertisement relating to prostitution in each of the last two years; and how many of them were (i) UK citizens, (ii) EU foreign nationals and (iii) non-EU foreign nationals;

(3) how many people have been (a) prosecuted for and (b) convicted of kerb-crawling in each of the last two years; and how many of them were (i) UK citizens, (ii) EU foreign nationals and (iii) non-EU foreign nationals.

The information requested covering offences relating to prostitution is provided in the table for 2006 and 2007 (latest available). The data held centrally by my Department on the Court Proceedings Database do not contain information about the nationality status of the offender other than the information that may be gleaned from the offence itself.

The figures given relate to defendants for whom these offences were the principal offence for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences, the offence selected is the one 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.

The number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts for offences relating to prostitution, by year, 2006 and 20071,2

2006

2007

Offence

Statute

Proceeded against

Found guilty

Proceeded against

Found guilty

Common prostitute loitering or soliciting for the purposes of prostitution

Street Offences Act 1959

845

648

874

526

Placing of advertisement relating to prostitution

Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001

431

392

366

341

Kerb crawling

Sexual Offences Act 1985

625

532

554

491

1 Figures given are on a 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. 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:

Office for Criminal Justice Reform—Evidence and Analysis unit