The arrests collection is held by the Home Office and covers arrests for recorded crime (notifiable offences) only, broken down at a main offence group level, covering categories such as violence against the person and robbery.
Information provided by the Home Office on 10 to 17-year-olds arrested for drug offences covering 2003-04 to 2007-08 (latest available) is provided in Table 1. It is not possible to separately identify arrests for Class A drugs from the information on arrests for drug offences reported to the Home Office.
Data on arrests for 2008-09 are scheduled to be published on 15 April 2010.
The number of persons aged 10 to 17 years proceeded against at magistrates courts for all drugs offences and Class A drugs offences, and those receiving a sentence of immediate custody at all courts, England and Wales, 2004 to 2008 (latest available) is given in Table 2. Court proceedings data are published on a calendar year basis.
Court proceedings data for 2009 are planned for publication in the autumn 2010.
Number of arrests for drug offences 2003-04 18,100 2004-05 14,600 2005-06 14,400 2006-07 12,800 2007-08 15,018 1 Figures for 2006-07 onwards are unrounded, previous years rounded. Source: Home Office Statistics.
Defendants Proceeded against Immediate custody Offence 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 All drugs offences 5,125 5,214 4,977 5,855 6,928 181 200 214 214 284 Of which: Class A drugs offences 850 875 897 1,067 1,064 133 160 168 170 225 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 Excludes convictions for Cardiff magistrates court for April, July and August 2008. Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services—Ministry of Justice.