Information showing the number of defendants found guilty at all courts for offences under section 3(1) and 3(3) of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 in England and Wales from 2003 to 2007 (latest available) can be viewed in the following table. The information provides both the number of cases where injuries were inflicted and also the number of cases where no injuries were inflicted.
The Court Proceedings Database held by the Ministry of Justice does not hold specific information on the age of the victims beyond descriptions provided by the statutes under which prosecutions are brought.
Data for 2008 are planned for publication at the end of January 2010.
Found guilty Offence description Section of the Act 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Owner or person in charge allowing dog to be dangerously out of control in a public place injuring any person S.3(1) 302 350 403 458 456 Owner or person in charge allowing dog to be dangerously out of control in a public place, no injury being caused S.3(1) 171 167 168 160 205 Owner or person in charge allowing dog to enter a non-public place and injure any person S.3(3) 33 25 25 29 27 Owner or person in charge allowing dog to enter a non-public place causing reasonable apprehension of injury to a person S.3(3) 10 5 9 11 15 Total 516 547 605 658 703 1 The number proceeded against and number found guilty 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 police forces and 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: Evidence and Analysis unit—Office for Criminal Justice