Thomas Gould
Question:368. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Justice the number of prosecutions under the Novel Psychoactive Substances Act 2010 in 2019, 2020 and to date in 2021, in tabular form. [34055/21]
View answerThursday, 24 June 2021
Questions (368)
Written answers
As the Deputy may be aware, under the provisions of the Courts Service Act 1998, management of the courts is the responsibility of the Courts Service, which is independent in exercising its functions. This includes the compilation of information relating to convictions.
In addition, the decision about whether or not to prosecute a person is entirely a matter for the Director of Public Prosecutions and I, as Minister, have no role in such matters.
I am informed by the Courts Service that there is no record of any prosecutions under the Criminal Justice (Psychoactive Substances) Act 2010 in the years in question.
The Deputy should note however, that the Courts Service can only provide data in instances where offence codes provided on the system were used by prosecutors. In relation to prosecutions under the Criminal Justice (Psychoactive Substances) Act 2010, prosecutors may have used uncoded free text offences, which do not appear in searches for prosecutions by the Courts Service.