Women Arrested for Offences Against the Person

Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request ref: 01/FOI/26/009385/C

Version Date: 04/02/2026

Please provide details on how many women have been arrested under:

a.) s58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861
and
b.) the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929

Between June 2025 and January 2026.

The Performance & Analysis Department has provided the following information:

Searches were completed in Niche from 01/06/2025 to 11/01/2026 filtering only to Women for the following offences:

• s58. Offences Against the Person Act 1861 - administering drugs or using instruments to procure abortion. Offence Description(s):
• Procure miscarriage of woman by poison / instrument (current)
• Procure own miscarriage by poison / use of instrument (current)

• s59. Offences Against the Person Act 1861 - procuring drugs, etc, to cause abortion. Offence Description(s):
• Attempt to procure a poison / noxious thing to cause a miscarriage (current)
• Procure a poison / noxious thing to cause a miscarriage (current)
• Procure instrument / thing to cause miscarriage (current)
• Supply instrument / thing to cause miscarriage (current)
• Supply poison / noxious thing to cause miscarriage (current)

• Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929. Offence Description(s):
• Child destruction (current)

These searches resulted a nil return, there have been no arrests for the aforementioned offences from 01/06/2025 - 11/01/2026.

Please note that this data may be subject to change if any investigations are ongoing.