FOI Child Sexual Offences (0277-2022/23)

Request

1. For the period 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022:
a) The number of recorded sexual offences against children aged under 18, broken down by offence along with the age and gender of victims (by individual year of age where possible or grouped into 0-5, 6-10, 11-15 and 16-17).
b) The number of above offences that had a cyber flag attached.

2. For the periods 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018, 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019, 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020, 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021, and 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022 broken down by year:
a) The number of suspects charged for child sexual offences.
b) The number of cases referred to the CPS for child sexual abuse offences.

Response

Extent and Result of Searches to Locate Information

To locate the information relevant to your request searches were conducted within North Yorkshire Police. I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by North Yorkshire Police.

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the located information to you.

1a. Please see the below table for the number of sexual offences against children reported to North Yorkshire police from 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022, broken down by age group and gender.

Victim Age	Female	Male	Total
0 - 5	75	25	100
11 - 15	563	105	668
16 - 17	141	11	152
6 - 10	142	57	199
Total	921	198	1119

1b. Of the above 1119 offences 230 have a cyber flag attached.

2a. Please see the below table for the number of people charged for sexual offences against children within the North Yorkshire Police force area from 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2022, broken down by year.

Year	01-Charged/Summonsed
2017/2018	86
2018/2019	93
2019/2020	87
2020/2021	61
2021/2022	22
Total	349

Please note that systems used for recording information are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data.  It should be noted therefore that this force’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other responses you may receive.