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Offences against Children: Suspended Sentences

Asked by Mark PritchardConservativeMinistry of JusticeTabled Answered 30 April 2025UIN 46698

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) adults and (b) juveniles convicted of (i) downloading and (ii) procuring online child abuse images received suspended custodial sentences in the latest period for which figures are available.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones

The Ministry of Justice publishes data on the number of convictions at criminal courts in England and Wales in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics.

Information on the number of suspended custodial sentences for adults and juveniles for the offence of possessing prohibited images of children is available within the published data. However, information on whether offenders were sentenced specifically for downloading or procuring child abuse images is not held by the Ministry of Justice, as this information is not recorded centrally in the Court Proceedings Database.

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