Number and charges of young people charged after public disorder in summer 2024
Request
You requested the following information:
How many people aged 4-16 have been charged following the recent UK riots, and what were their charges?
Response
The CPS holds some information falling within the scope of your request in relation to suspects in England and Wales between the ages of 10 to 16, who were involved in disorder following the incident in Southport, where charges were authorised by the CPS during August 2024.
The CPS does not hold data in relation to children aged nine and under, who are below the age of criminal responsibility and therefore cannot be charged or prosecuted with a criminal offence.
The CPS does not hold data in relation to any charges brought in Northern Ireland or Scotland.
As of 14 August 2024, eight suspects between the ages of 10 and 16 had been charged with offences related to public disorder following the incident in Southport. The charges were violent disorder, burglary other than dwelling - theft, having a bladed article, use threatening abusive or insulting words, obstruct/resist a police constable, and arson.
It is important to note that the public disorder data is subject to change given it is derived from ‘live’ operational management information. This data has been obtained by manually reviewing the relevant flagged cases.
Flagged cases
The information provided above is based on suspects who have the ‘Extraordinary Event’ flag applied to the case. This flag should be applied to cases where there are any offences linked to the public disorder following the incident in Southport on 29 of July 2024. The flag will apply both to pre-charge and post-charge cases and, as with all monitoring flags, will remain applied during the life of the case.
The flag is not limited to offences of violent disorder but applies to all public disorder and potential offences including (but are not limited to):
- Offences created by the Public Order Act 1986 including racially and religiously aggravated offences (Crime and Disorder Act)
- Incitement to racial or religious hatred (stirring up offences)
- Criminal damage – such as arson, destroying property e.g. walls, breaking windows
- Explosives offences – such as throwing, making/manufacturing, possessing
- Throwing corrosive fluids
- Murder
- Assaults
- Possession of offensive weapons / bladed articles
- Theft and burglary offences – such as looting
- Communications offences relating to the disorder (including grossly offensive messages)
The flag applies to all public disorder offending and is not limited to members of any specific group. It will apply equally to any disorder from groups or individuals who involve themselves in the disorder where opposing views may be aired.
General Data Caveats
- 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).
Advice and Assistance
You may find it helpful to contact the MOJ who may be collecting data on the ages of those prosecuted following charge. They can be contacted by email at [email protected]
For information on any charges brought in Northern Ireland or Scotland you can contact the relevant prosecution authorities:
For Scotland you can contact the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service at Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (copfs.gov.uk)
For Northern Ireland you can contact the Public Prosecution Service Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland (ppsni.gov.uk).