§ BARONESS WOOTTON OF ABINGERasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many of the 178 preventive detainees described in the Home Office Research Unit's Fifth Report would have been eligible for one of the new forms of sentences proposed for persistent offenders in the White Paper on The Adult Offender; and of those who would have been so eligible how many had been sentenced to preventive detention as a result of acquisitive offences involving less than £100 worth of money or goods and not involving violence.
§ LORD STONHAMOf the 178 preventive detainees referred to in the Home Office Research Unit's Fifth Report 176 would have been eligible to be dealt with as persistent offenders under the proposals in the White Paper onThe Adult Offender. Of these 176 persons 91 had been sentenced to preventive detention after conviction for larceny, breaking and entering, receiving, fraud or false pre- 260WA tences, involving money or goods valued at less than £100 and not involving conviction of violence against the person.