Prosecutions for prostitution, keeping a brothel and trafficking for sexual exploitation

Request 

I am currently in my final year and completing my dissertation. I am wondering if you would be able to help me with conviction rates. I am looking for conviction rates over the last 5 years of section 51-54 (prostitution), keeping a brothel (55) and trafficking for sexual exploitation (57-59) of the sexual offences act 2003. If there is anything information relating to prostitution, brothers, ‘pimping’ and trafficking, I would be extremely grateful.

Response

The Crown Prosecution Service does hold and record some limited data within the scope of your request. Please see the table below. This data set shows the number of offences charged by way of S51A – S53A Sexual Offences Act (SOA) 2003 and S33-36 SOA 1956 in which a prosecution commenced. The caveats below the table should be noted accordingly.

The following should also be noted with regards to the following offences when considering the disclosed data:

Section 51-54 (prostitution). Section 51A (soliciting), S52 (Causing or inciting prostitution for gain), S53 (Controlling prostitution for gain) and S53A (Paying for the sexual services of a prostitute subject to force etc).  We have provided the number of offences charged by way of the above sections of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. It should also be noted that s.54 is not a criminal offence. This provision provides interpretation of Sections 51 – 54.

Keeping a brothel (55). Section 55 of the SOA 2003 amended the 1956 Sexual Offences Act by changing the penalties for brothel keeping, the actual brothel keeping offences are still those created by the 1956 Act (S33 and S33A) and permitting premises/letting premises be used as a brothel (S34 – S36 SOA 1956). Again, we have provided the number of offences charged by these sections of the Sexual Offences Act 1956.

Trafficking for sexual exploitation (57-59) of the sexual offences act 2003. These offences were repealed by the Modern Slavery Act (MSA) 2015 and now only apply retrospectively to non-recent offending. The only data we have on offences whether under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 or the MSA 2015 is a volume count of offences with no conviction rates available. It should also be noted that for offences of human trafficking charged under s.2 MSA, we are not able to disaggregate sexual exploitation from other exploitation types.

Therefore, in order to provide information concerning the number of offences which resulted in a conviction it would be necessary to manually review CPS case files to ascertain this information.

Section 12(1) of the FOI Act means public authorities are not obliged to comply with a request for information if it estimates the cost of complying would exceed the appropriate limit. The appropriate limit for central government is set at £600. This means that the appropriate limit will be exceeded if it would require more than 24 hours' work in determining whether the CPS holds the information, and locating, retrieving and extracting the information.

By way of assistance and advice during the five-year period ending March 2021, a prosecution commenced in respect of 969 offences equating to 571 case files. We believe the time taken to conduct a detailed review of all 969 offences to obtain the information you seek, would exceed the appropriate limit. Consequently, we are not obliged to comply with this aspect of your request.

However, under section 16 of the FOI Act we have an obligation to advise what, if any, information may assist you with your request. Our published data concerning data on flagged trafficking/modern slavery prosecutions which include conviction rates and are published on the CPS website as part of the quarterly data releases from Quarter 2 2019/20, earlier data on conviction rates for trafficking/modern slavery can be found in the underlying data tables to the CPS Annual Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Report 2018/19 also available on the link provided below - 

CPS quarterly data summaries | The Crown Prosecution Service

Finally, I also provide links to our legal guidance on Exploitation of Prostitution and Modern Slavery/ Human Trafficking: 

Prostitution and Exploitation of Prostitution | The Crown Prosecution Service (cps.gov.uk)
Modern Slavery, Human Trafficking and Smuggling | The Crown Prosecution Service (cps.gov.uk)

Caveats

Offences recorded in the Management Information System Offences Universe are those which reached a hearing. There is no indication of final outcome or if the charged offence was the substantive charge at finalisation.

Data relates to the number of offences recorded in magistrates' courts, in which a prosecution commenced, as recorded on the Case Management System.

Offences data are not held by defendant or outcome.

Offences recorded in the Offences Universe of the MIS are those which were charged at any time and reached at least one hearing. This offence will remain recorded whether or not that offence was proceeded with and there is no indication of final outcome or if the offence charged was the substantive offence at finalisation.
                    
CPS data are available through its Case Management System (CMS) and associated Management Information System (MIS). The CPS collects data to assist in the effective management of its prosecution functions. The CPS does not collect data that constitutes official statistics as defined in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

These data have been drawn from the CPS’s administrative IT system, which (as with any large scale recording system) is subject to possible errors with data entry and processing. The figures are provisional and subject to change as more information is recorded by the CPS. We are committed to improving the quality of our data and from mid-June 2015 introduced a new data assurance regime which may explain some unexpected variance in some future data sets.

The official statistics relating to crime and policing are maintained by the Home Office (HO) and the official statistics relating to sentencing, criminal court proceedings, offenders brought to justice, the courts and the judiciary are maintained by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ).