Government of Jersey

Recorded offences under Children (Jersey) Law 2022 (FOI)

Produced by the Freedom of Information office
Authored by Government of Jersey and published on 05 May 2022.
Prepared internally, no external costs.

Request

I would like to request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act please:

The total number of recorded cruelty to children/young person offences (Home Office offence code: 11A) for the periods 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020, 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021, and 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022.

The total number of victims broken down by age (by individual year of age where possible otherwise please provide it grouped into: 0-5, 6-10, 11-15 and 16-17).

Response

The relevant legislation in Jersey is the Children Law (Jersey) 2002, specifically Article 35(1).

Article 35 of the Children (Jersey) Law 2002 - Causing harm to or neglecting children under 16

(1) If any person who has responsibility for a child under the age of 16 intentionally or recklessly –

(a) causes any harm to that child;

(b) exposes the child to a risk of harm; or

(c) neglects the child in a manner likely to cause the child harm, the person shall be guilty of an offence and liable to imprisonment for a term of 10 years and to a fine.

Number of offences recorded under Article 35(1) between the relevant dates
1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020	1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021	1 April 2021 – 31 March 2022
59	51	27
Age of victims	Number of victims¹
0	<5
1	<5
2	9
3	7
4	12
5	9
6	12
7	11
8	8
9	17
10	8
11	7
12	6
13	8
14	8
15	8
16	<5
17	Not applicable²
Totals	137

1 Disclosure control has been applied to numbers fewer than five to prevent the identification of individuals. Article 25 (Personal Information) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

2 Offences under Article 35 of the Children (Jersey) Law 2002 relate to a child under the age of 16 years.

Article applied

Article 25 - Personal information

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2005.

(2) Information is absolutely exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2005; and

(b) its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.