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Blackmail

Volume 507: debated on Thursday 11 March 2010

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people convicted of the offence of blackmail since 1990 were sentenced to a period of imprisonment of seven years or more. (321277)

The available information is provided in the table as follows:

Custodial sentences of at least seven years for blackmail1, 1993-2008

Total

1990

1

1991

5

1992

6

1993

4

1994

4

1995

7

1996

10

1997

8

1998

2

1999

10

2000

5

2001

12

2002

5

2003

5

2004

4

2005

2

2006

18

2007

1

2008

4

1 S.21 Theft Act 1968. Notes: 1. These figures have been drawn from administrative data systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. 2. The data have been taken from the Ministry of Justice Court Proceedings database. The data are presented on the principal offence basis. Where an offender has been sentenced for more than one offence the principal offence is the one for which the heaviest sentence was imposed. Where the same sentence has been imposed for two or more offences the principal offence is the one for which the statutory maximum is most severe.