Erratum: 8 December 2017
Source: data.gov.uk (2018-05-25)

Criminal Justice Statistics. The reports presents the main trends on the latest 12 months of activity in the criminal justice system (CJS) for England and Wales. For each process a brief description of the function is included with an explanation of some of the main procedures involved.

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Ministry of Justice 
Criminal Justice Statistics Quarterly: December 2016 
Published May 2017 
Available at: www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-december-
2016  
 
ERRATUM 
Published 8 December 2017 
 
In 2015, a new offence of disclosing private sexual photographs and films with intent to 
cause distress (‘revenge porn’) was introduced under Section 33 of the Criminal Justice and 
Courts Act 2015. This is a ‘triable either way’ offence, and those convicted face a maximum 
sentence of two years in prison. 
In “Criminal justice system statistics quarterly: December 2016”, some summary offences 
relating to sending offensive/threatening messages under Section 1 of the Malicious 
Communications Act 1988 were incorrectly presented within this offence.  This was a result 
of a mapping inconsistency during production of the bulletin, and affects figures for the 
calendar years 2015 and 2016.  
Figures for ‘disclose private sexual photographs and films with intent to cause distress’ were 
overstated by the amounts shown in the tables below, and in turn ‘summary offences under 
the Malicious Communications Act 1988’ were understated by the same amounts.  
Consequently, total figures presented for violence against the person offences and summary 
non-motoring offences are also affected by the same amounts.  
The corrected figures for defendants prosecuted and offenders convicted and the differences 
are in the tables below: 
Defendants prosecuted 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Offence 
code
Offence detailed group
Offence type Offence group
Year
Original Corrected
Difference
2015
271
82
-189
2016
300
267
-33
2015
560
749
189
2016
42
75
33
195/41
195 Malicious Communications 
Act - Sending letters etc. with 
intent to cause distress or 
anxiety
SNM
Summary Non-
Motoring
008/71
8.19 Disclose private sexual 
photographs and films with intent 
to cause distress
TEW
Violence against 
the person
The figures given in these tables relate to defendants 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 it is the offence 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.

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Offenders convicted 
 
 
 
Please see the accompanying spreadsheet (Erratum – data.csv) for a more detailed 
breakdown of corrected figures.  
Due to the nature of this mapping error, this correction will affect several tables and tools 
published alongside the “Criminal justice system statistics quarterly: December 2016” 
publication. These are listed below. These products have not been revised because the 
change is relatively small at an aggregate level. Full updated and corrected data will be 
available alongside the “Criminal justice system statistics quarterly: December 2017” 
publication, due to be published 17 May 2018. 
Products affected: 
Overview tables 
Criminal justice statistics outcomes by offence tool 
Prosecutions and convictions tool 
Remands – magistrates’ tool 
Sentencing tool 
Magistrates’ court tool 
Experimental statistics – proceedings and outcomes by Home Office offence code  
 
This revision is in accordance with Principle 2 of the Code of Practice for Official Statistics 
which requires all producers of Official Statistics to publish transparent guidance on 
revisions. The Ministry of Justice aims to avoid the need for revisions to publications unless 
they are absolutely necessary and has put systems and processes in place to minimise the 
number of revisions. 
 
Offence 
code
Offence detailed group
Offence type Offence group
Year
Original Corrected
Difference
2015
221
64
-157
2016
250
228
-22
2015
400
557
157
2016
57
79
22
008/71
8.19 Disclose private sexual 
photographs and films with intent 
to cause distress
TEW
Violence against 
the person
SNM
Summary Non-
Motoring
195/41
195 Malicious Communications 
Act - Sending letters etc. with 
intent to cause distress or 
anxiety
The figures given in these tables relate to defendants 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 it is the offence 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.