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21 Apr 2008 : Column 1498W—continued

Offensive Weapons: Yorkshire and Humberside

Mr. Graham Stuart: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) warnings, (b) cautions and (c) charges were issued for possession of knives in each of the last 10 years, in each police authority area in Yorkshire and the Humber, broken down by age category; and if she will make a statement. [197435]

Mr. Coaker: The number of offenders issued with final warnings and cautions, and the number of defendants ‘proceeded against’ at magistrates courts, for offences involving the possession of knives in each police force area in the Yorkshire and the Humber area by age group for the years 1997 to 2006 is shown in tables 1 to 4. Court proceedings data for 2007 will not be available until the autumn of 2008. Charging data are not held centrally, so information on the number of individuals proceeded against has been provided in lieu of charging data.

These data are on the principal offence basis. The figures given in the table on court proceedings relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences, the offence selected is the one for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe.

Table 1: The number of offenders issued with final warnings and cautions, and the number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts for offences relating to possession of knives, by certain age groups, in Humberside police force area, 1997 to 2006( 1,2,3,4)
	Final warning	Total cautioned( 3)	Proceeded against
Age 10 to 17
1997	Nil	6	9
1998	Nil	10	8
1999	Nil	9	13
2000	Nil	5	18
2001	4	7	18
2002	1	4	18
2003	Nil	2	13
2004	Nil	4	18
2005	3	22	23
2006	3	12	37
Age 18 to 20
1997	Nil	2	9
1998	Nil	4	12
1999	Nil	2	13
2000	Nil	1	17
2001	Nil	2	6
2002	Nil	3	18
2003	Nil	1	19
2004	Nil	1	22
2005	Nil	4	20
2006	Nil	13	18
Age 21 and over
1997	Nil	2	42
1998	Nil	1	44
1999	Nil	6	54
2000	Nil	3	30
2001	Nil	1	37
2002	Nil	2	45
2003	Nil	Nil	47
2004	Nil	5	81
2005	Nil	18	80
2006	Nil	25	80
(1)These data are on the principal offence basis. (2)From 1 June 2000 the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 came into force nationally and removed the use of cautions for persons under 18 and replaced them with reprimands and final warnings. The total figure of reprimands and final warnings makes up cautions. (3)Data include the following statutes and corresponding offence descriptions: Criminal Justice Act 1988 5.139(1) and (6): Have blade/article which was sharply pointed in public place Criminal Justice Act 1988 S.139AU): Having an article with a blade or point on school premises Note: Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts, other agencies, and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. Source: Court proceedings data held by RDS—Office for Criminal Justice Reform—Ministry of Justice

21 Apr 2008 : Column 1499W

Table 2: The number of offenders issued with final warnings and cautions, and the number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts for offences relating to possession of knives, by certain age groups, in North Yorkshire police force area, 1997 to 2006( 1,2,3,4)
	Final warning	Total cautioned( 3)	Proceeded against
Age 10 to 17
1997	Nil	3	9
1998	Nil	5	3
1999	Nil	4	6
2000	1	10	13
2001	6	9	11
2002	3	9	11
2003	3	5	11
2004	6	14	16
2005	4	9	11
2006	2	9	20
Age 18 to 20
1997	Nil	1	8
1998	Nil	2	6
1999	Nil	3	12
2000	Nil	2	10
2001	Nil	Nil	10
2002	Nil	6	7
2003	Nil	6	11
2004	Nil	2	25
2005	Nil	5	11
2006	Nil	7	9
Age 21 and over
1997	Nil	3	30
1998	Nil	2	30
1999	Nil	5	34
2000	Nil	5	31
2001	Nil	7	43
2002	Nil	3	47
2003	Nil	7	41
2004	Nil	4	48
2005	Nil	11	58
2006	Nil	8	41
(1) These data are on the principal offence basis. (2) From 1 June 2000 the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 came into force nationally and removed the use of cautions for persons under 18 and replaced them with reprimands and final warnings. The total figure of reprimands and final warnings makes up cautions. (3) Data include the following statutes and corresponding offence descriptions: Criminal Justice Act 1988 5.139(1) and (6): Have blade/article which was sharply pointed in public place Criminal Justice Act 1988 S.139A(1): Having an article with a blade or point on school premises Note: Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts, other agencies, and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. Source: Court proceedings data held by RDS—Office for Criminal Justice Reform—Ministry of Justice

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