Upskirting prosecutions 2019-2022
Request and response
I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information on Upskirting prosecutions under the Voyeurism (Offences) Act:
1. How many people have been prosecuted for Upskirting from 2019 – 2022. Please provide the data on an annual basis.
In response to question one, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) can confirm that it holds some data in scope of your request. Our records indicate that during the period 01 January 2019 to 31 December 2022, 313 offences of ‘Upskirting’ commenced prosecution in the magistrates’ courts. This equates to 134 individual case files. Please refer to the table below which shows the data for 01 January 2019 - 31 December 2022. The caveats appended to the table should be read in conjunction with the data.
2. How many Upskirting offences were successfully prosecuted from 2019-2022? Please provide the data on an annual basis.
3. Of the people who were prosecuted for Upskirting from 2019 – 2022, how many individuals were also charged with other sexual offences?
4. Of the people who were prosecuted for Upskirting from 2019 – 2022, how many individuals were also prosecuted for other sexual offences?
5. Of the people who were prosecuted with Upskirting offences from 2019-2022 and were also charged with other sexual offences, please list the types of sexual offences which they were also charged with
6. How many people prosecuted for Upskirting between 2019-2022 were under the age of 18?
7. Where is the most common location for Upskirting offences to take place?
8. How many prosecutions for Upskirting from 2019-2022 relate to victims who were under the age of 18? Please list their ages
9. How many prosecutions for Upskirting from 2019-2022 relate to victims who were 10 years or younger? Please list their ages
In response to questions two to nine, the CPS does not hold central records pertaining to your request. In order for the CPS to attempt to extract the detailed information that you have asked for, a manual review of CPS case files would be required.
As an indication of the work, during the period 01 January 2019 to 31 December 2022, 313 offences, which equates to 134 individual case files, were charged and reached a first hearing in the Magistrates’ Courts.
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.
We believe that the cost of manually reviewing 134 individual case files would exceed the appropriate limit. Consequently, we are not obliged to comply with your request.
Under section 16 of the FOI Act we have an obligation to advise what, if any, information may assist you with your request; under this provision, we suggest you refer to the police to obtain the specific number of defendants charged for the offences which fall within the scope of your request.
| Offences charged and reaching a first hearing at magistrates' courts | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sexual Offences Act 2003 (s.67A(1) and (4)) | 9 | 48 | 38 | 38 |
| Sexual Offences Act 2003 (s.67A(2) and (4)) | 7 | 48 | 65 | 60 |
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).