Data showing the number of persons found guilty of offences under sections 1 and 3 of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 in England and Wales from 1997 to 2007 (latest available) are shown in the following table.
1997 1998 1999 32000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Section 1 19 15 12 8 4 7 3 17 11 6 74 Section 3 218 385 412 422 487 487 516 547 605 658 703 Total 237 400 424 430 491 494 519 564 616 664 777 1 The statistics 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. 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 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: Office for Criminal Justice Reform-Evidence and analysis unit.