Serious Fraud Office: Prosecutions

Mr. Djanogly
To ask the Solicitor-General how many prosecutions were initiated by the Serious Fraud Office in each of the last 10 years; and what the conviction rate from such prosecutions was in each year.

The Solicitor-General
The Serious Fraud Office has brought prosecutions against the following number of defendants in each of the last 10 years; and the conviction rates arising from these prosecutions are as follows:

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|Financial year|Defendants tried|Conviction rate (percentage)|
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|2007-08       |25              |68                          |
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|2006-07       |21              |71                          |
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|2005-06       |23              |57                          |
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|2004-05       |58              |64                          |
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|2003-04       |39              |51                          |
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|2002-03       |25              |68                          |
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|2001-02       |13              |77                          |
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|2000-01       |58              |88                          |
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|1999-2000     |12              |92                          |
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|1998-99       |42              |81                          |
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Mr. Djanogly
To ask the Solicitor-General in what proportion of Serious Fraud Office prosecutions was pre-trial abuse claimed by the defence in each of the last 10 calendar years.

The Solicitor-General
The Serious Fraud Office does not centrally maintain statistics about applications made to a judge to stop a trail from proceedings on the basis of allegations of abuse of process.

The SFO holds post-case reviews on conclusion of each case, which provides an opportunity for the case team to discuss and record the successes of the investigation, as well as any lessons learned from issues encountered (and resolved) for the future. This information is shared across the office to ensure that best practice is adopted throughout the organisation.