The available information is contained in the following table.
Data held by the Ministry of Justice on court proceedings is available by police force area (PFA) and the table shows the number of persons under the age of 16 years given custodial sentences in Essex PFA including West Chelmsford constituency, in each year from 1997 to 2007. This data is not made available for smaller areas such as constituencies because detailed checks on sentencing records are not carried out at court level.
Figures for 2008 will be available towards the end of 2009.
Immediate custody 1997 98 1998 82 1999 65 2000 86 2001 115 2002 112 2003 105 2004 99 2005 85 2006 106 2007 81 1 Figures on custodial sentences are in this case equivalent to number of immediate custody given because suspended sentences apply only to persons aged 18 or over. Notes: 1. The figures are on principal offence basis. 2. These figures have been taken from administrative IT systems which as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing. Source: OMS-AS.