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Offences against Children: Prison Sentences

Asked by Louise HaighLabourMinistry of JusticeTabled Answered 20 October 2025UIN 78292

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department holds data on the number of offenders sentenced to more than four years’ custody for sexual offences against children, broken down by whether the victim was (a) their own child and (b) another child in each year since 2017.

Answered by Jake Richards

The Ministry of Justice publishes data on sentences for sexual offences, including average custodial sentence lengths, in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal justice statistics - GOV.UK

It is not possible to identify those who have a parental responsibility status. This information may be held in court records but to examine individual court records would be of disproportionate costs.

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