Laurence Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Laurence Robertson on 2014-07-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases of child abduction where no attempt has been made to take the child out of the UK have reached court in each of the last five years for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement.

Simon Hughes

The Ministry of Justice Court Proceedings Database holds information on defendants proceeded against, found guilty and sentenced for criminal offences in England and Wales. Centrally held data does not indicate which defendants proceeded against under Section 2 of the Child Abduction Act 1984 were not taking the child out of the UK. This information may be held by the individual courts in England and Wales but as such it could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.