Convictions under section 33 and section 34 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 in 2018/19 : FOI release

Information requested

On the 8th September you asked for:

1 - Numbers of people convicted jointly and individually under section 33 and section 34 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 during 2018-2019 and 2019 - 2020- excluding those charged with other offences at the same time.
2 - Of the individuals in question 1, for how many of those was this their first conviction of a sexual crime.
3 - Of the individuals in question 2, how many of those individuals received a custodial sentence?
4 - If applicable, of those who received a custodial sentence, what was the shortest, longest and average sentence handed out in relation to their conviction under section 33/34

On the 9th of September you asked:

I would like to receive the following information relating to each of the Sexual offences (Scotland) act 2009 section 33 and section 34.

5 - The total number of charges and convictions relating to each section of the above in each of the following years - 2018, 2019 and 2020 YTD
6 - The number of “victims” for each section who were actually under 16 as opposed to people portraying themselves to be someone under 16 for each year 2018, 2019 and 2020 YTD.
7 - The number of people where it was there first offence for each section in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
8 - The number of custodial sentences for each of the above sections for 2018, 2019 and 2020 YTD.

Response

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. The reasons why we don't have the information are explained in this letter.

The information provided is derived from the Scottish Government (SG) criminal proceedings database, of which the latest available data is for the financial year 2018-19. Information for 2019-20 will not be available until publication of the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2019-20 Statistical Bulletin. This is expected to be published in the spring of 2021. The dates of all Scottish Government Official and National Statistics publications are pre-announced, the up to date list of future publications can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/ForthcomingPubs. We do not operate a live case database and cannot provide information for the year 2020 to date. Statistics are presented on criminal proceedings concluded in Scottish courts and we do not hold information relating to charges reported to the Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS).

The attached excel workbook provides a breakdown of the totals provided in the following answers by sections 33 and 34 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 herein referred to as 'the Act'.

Q1-4 - The available data shows that in 2018-19 there were 34 people convicted jointly and individually under section 33 and section 34 of the Act, where these were the only charges. Of which, for 29 people this was a first conviction of a sexual crime, and subsequently one person received a custodial sentence of 162 days.

Q5. The available data shows that in 2017-18 there were a total of 194 offences and in 2018-19 there were 209 offences prosecuted under s33 and s34 of the Act, of which 104 and 126 offences respectively were found guilty.

Q6. Information on victims of crime is not held in the SG criminal proceedings database.

Q7. We have not received your response to our request for clarification and have chosen to provide data where it was a persons first offence for these sections as opposed to first offence ever. If this is not what you intended then please contact us. There were 45 people and 38 people convicted in 2017-18 and 2018-19 respectively, where this was their first offence of sections 33 and 34 of the Act .

Q8. There were 12 people given a custodial sentence in both 2017-18 and 2018-19 for offences under s33 and s34 of the Act, where this was the main charge.

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The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI/202000085676 - Information Released

File type

Excel document

File size

16.3 kB