Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2016-09-14.

To ask the Attorney General, on how many occasions, and on what dates, the Crown Prosecution Service has decided to prosecute medical professionals for abortion-related offences since 1997-98.

Jeremy Wright

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not hold offences data prior to 2004-2005. Between the years 2004-2005 and 2015-2016, the CPS commenced prosecutions of 71 abortion related offences. However, it is not possible to disaggregate the data to report the occupation of the defendant, whether a medical professional or otherwise. This information could only be obtained by examining each of the CPS case files, which would incur disproportionate cost.