Following is a question by the Hon Grace Chan and a written reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Tang Ping-keung, in the Legislative Council today (June 17):
 
Question:

     Given the Government's indication that it plans to propose legislative amendments on sexual offences within this year, there are views that society needs a more accurate understanding of the current situation regarding sexual offences in Hong Kong. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(1) of the numbers of cases of suspected rape and indecent assault received by the Police in each of the past five years, with a breakdown by gender of the victims; as well as the respective numbers of persons arrested, prosecuted and convicted in those cases;

(2) of the number of cases involving sexual offences against children under 18 (including rape, indecent assault, incest, and sexual intercourse with a girl under 13 or 16) in each of the past five years, as well as the respective numbers of persons arrested, prosecuted and convicted in those cases;

(3) of the numbers and types of perpetrators (e.g. parent, relative, friend, caregiver, teacher, school staff, tutor, coach, other relationship, and unrelated or unidentified person) involved in the cases referred to in (2);

(4) of the numbers of cases of suspected offences of "sexual intercourse with a mentally incapacitated person" and "indecent assault on a mentally incapacitated person" under the Crimes Ordinance (Cap. 200) in the past five years, as well as the respective numbers of persons arrested, prosecuted and convicted in those cases;

(5) of the total number of cases involving the four new offences (i.e. voyeurism, unlawful recording or observation of intimate parts, publication of images originating from voyeurism or unlawful recording of intimate parts, as well as publication or threatened publication of intimate images without consent) received by the Police since the Crimes (Amendment) Ordinance 2021 (the Amendment Ordinance) came into effect in October 2021, as well as the respective numbers of persons arrested, prosecuted and convicted in those cases, with a breakdown by the four offences concerned; and

(6) of (i) the number of cases in which the Police's Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau has assisted to remove, delete or destroy intimate images published without consent, as well as the number of relevant links it has dealt with, and the number of network platforms or operators involved in those cases; and (ii) the number of cases in which the Police have applied to the court under section 159AAL of the Crimes Ordinance for a disposal order ordering a person to take reasonable steps to remove, delete or destroy the image concerned within a specified period, as well as the number of such applications approved, in each year since the implementation of the Amendment Ordinance?

Reply:
 
President,

     The offences mentioned by the Member fall within the scope of the existing legislation and the statistics set out in this reply reflect the situation under the existing legislative framework. The Government understands the concern of society over the legislation on sexual offences and is actively studying the implementation of the recommendations put forward in the two reports published by the Law Reform Commission of Hong Kong, namely the Review of Substantive Sexual Offences in 2019 and Sentencing and Related Matters in the Review of Sexual Offences in 2022, with a view to conducting an overall review and improving the legislation on sexual offences in Hong Kong. The legislative exercise, which aims at strengthening legal protection for victims (especially children), is targeted for completion within the current term of Government.

     The reply to various parts of the question is as follows:

(1) Relevant statistics on cases of rape and indecent assault in the past five years are set out in Table 1 and Table 2.

Table 1: Statistics on cases of rape

Year	Number of cases	Number of victims			Number of persons arrested	Number of persons prosecuted	Number of persons convicted
		Male	Female	Total
2021	79	0	79	79	81	32	14
2022	53	0	53	53	56	34	11
2023	67	0	67	67	70	31	14
2024	77	0	77	77	76	41	17
2025	69	0	69	69	68	43	16

Table 2: Statistics on cases of indecent assault

Year	Number of cases	Number of victims			Number of persons arrested	Number of persons prosecuted	Number of persons convicted
		Male	Female	Total
2021	1018	68	950	1018	747	304	202
2022	953	68	885	953	705	299	197
2023	1162	73	1089	1162	827	355	243
2024	1185	88	1097	1185	832	390	247
2025	1137	100	1037	1137	857	327	211

 
(2) and (3) As for sexual offences against children, a child is defined under the Criminal Procedure Ordinance as a person who is under 17 years of age. Statistics on cases of sexual offences against children received by the Police in the past five years are set out in Table 3.

     The Police do not maintain statistics on the relationship between persons involved in cases of sexual offences against children.

Table 3: Statistics on cases of sexual offences against children

	Year
	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Cases of sexual offences against children
Number of cases	599	578	696	663	797
Number of persons arrested	429	423	504	439	567
The numbers of persons prosecuted and convicted in cases with statistical breakdown are as follows*:
Intercourse with a girl under 13
Prosecution	2	10	11	9	4
Conviction	1	6	8	4	3
Intercourse with a girl under 16
Prosecution	45	36	64	42	46
Conviction	37	31	56	32	33

* Statistics on prosecution and conviction in cases of rape, incest and indecent assault are not categorised and maintained by the age of victims.

(4) Statistics on cases of sexual intercourse with mentally incapacitated persons (MIPs) and indecent assault involving MIPs received by the Police in the past five years are set out in Table 4 and Table 5.

Table 4: Statistics on cases of sexual intercourse with MIPs

Year	Number of cases	Number of persons arrested	Number of persons prosecuted	Number of persons convicted
2021	11	7	0	0
2022	16	10	4	0
2023	11	10	1	0
2024	15	14	2	0
2025	14	12	6	5

 
Table 5: Statistics on cases of indecent assault involving MIPs

Year	Number of cases	Number of persons arrested	Number of persons prosecuted	Number of persons convicted
2021	21	20	0	0
2022	21	17	0	0
2023	16	14	0	0
2024	25	19	2	0
2025	20	19	0	0

(5) and (6) Since voyeurism-related offences under the Crimes Ordinance (Cap. 200) came into effect in October 2021, the relevant statistics up to the end of 2025 are tabulated at Table 6.

     The Police have also been conducting online patrols proactively to combat various offences (including voyeurism-related offences). Where actual circumstances require, the Police will request online platforms, operators, etc, to remove contents such as images and posts. The Police do not maintain a statistical breakdown on removal of intimate images.

     Furthermore, in handling cases involving intimate images, most of the service providers will comply with the Police's removal requests. So far, there have been no relevant cases involving applications for disposal orders.

Table 6: Statistics on voyeurism-related offences

Year	Number of cases	Number of persons arrested	Number of persons prosecuted	Number of persons convicted
Voyeurism
2021 (October to December)	31	20	0	0
2022	99	73	30	29
2023	139	81	58	53
2024	172	107	59	50
2025	158	112	49	40
Unlawful recording or observation of intimate parts
2021 (October to December)	86	65	0	0
2022	435	345	178	171
2023	358	257	207	195
2024	350	252	193	177
2025	341	282	161	153
Publication of images originating from commission of offence under section 159AAB(1) or 159AAC(1) of the Crimes Ordinance
2021 (October to December)	2	0	0	0
2022	7	5	0	0
2023	7	2	4	4
2024	5	0	1	1
2025	7	0	0	0
Publication or threatened publication of intimate images without consent
2021 (October to December)	15	5	0	0
2022	94	46	2	2
2023	134	61	8	7
2024	146	71	17	14
2025	116	61	14	6

Remarks: The number of cases and the number of persons arrested provided in the above reply are based on the number of cases received by the Police in that year. The respective years of prosecution and conviction refer to the years in which the trials were concluded. As the court proceedings in some cases may take longer, the year in which a case is received by the Police may not be the same as the year of conclusion of the case.

Ends/Wednesday, June 17, 2026
Issued at HKT 11:20

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