To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many people have been (a) charged with and (b) convicted of sex offences in Northern Ireland in each of the last six years. (260136)

The information requested is as follows:

(a) The data are not in the format requested as only case-based data are available. As several persons may be involved in a crime and only one person is required to clear a crime that has been committed, it is only possible to give the number of cases of sexual offences that were cleared by means of a charge or summons. This information is documented in Table 1 for the years 2002-03 to 2007-08.

(b) Table 2 documents those convicted of a sexual offence for the calendar years 2001 to 2006 (the latest years for which data are available). Data are collated on the principal offence rule; only the most serious offence with which an offender is charged is included.

It is not possible to compare the data provided in the two tables as those relating to Table 1 are case-based while those relating to Table 2 are person-based.