Sexual offences of disabled individuals (FOI)

Request

In relation to sexual offences of disabled individuals (with the figures being broken down if possible, re: if the offences took place when the individual was a child or an adult). Please could you supply figures for the past five calendar years (with the figures being broken down for each year): 

A

Number of allegations per year.

B

Number of charges placed per year.

C

Number of convictions per year.

It would be helpful to have a breakdown of the disabilities if possible and within the cost/time remit.

Response

Disability is defined by the UK Equality Act as a “physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ negative effect on your ability to do normal daily activities” 

Definition of disability under the Equality Act 2010 (gov.uk)

Since the beginning of 2017 until the date of research (9th November 2022) the States of Jersey Police have recorded a total of 1,074 sexual offences. 

To establish whether the victim or alleged victim has a disability would require a manual interrogation of each case. It is estimated that this would take between and five and ten minutes each and would therefore significantly exceed the 12.5 hours maximum time limit as provided by Article 16(1) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011, and a response is therefore declined. 

Article applied

Article 16 - A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive

(1) A scheduled public authority that has been requested to supply information may refuse to supply the information if it estimates that the cost of doing so would exceed an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations. 

(2) Despite paragraph (1), a scheduled public authority may still supply the information requested on payment to it of a fee determined by the authority in the manner prescribed by Regulations for the purposes of this Article.

(3) Regulations may provide that, in such circumstances as the Regulations prescribe, if two or more requests for information are made to a scheduled public authority –

(a) by one person; or

(b) by different persons who appear to the scheduled public authority to be acting in concert or in pursuance of a campaign, the estimated cost of complying with any of the requests is to be taken to be the estimated total cost of complying with all of them.