HC Deb 06 March 1968 vol 760 cc428-9
25. Earl of Dalkeith

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland what proportion of the crimes of violence committed in Scotland in the last full year for which statistics are available were perpetrated by individuals with previous convictions and prison sentences, respectively.

Mr. Buchan

A total of 2,929 crimes of violence were made known in 1966. Of the 1,108 persons recorded as convicted of crimes of violence in that year, 996 or 89.9 per cent. were known to have one or more previous convictions of criminal offences.

I regret that the number of persons convicted who had previous prison sentences is not available.

Earl of Dalkeith

Do not these figures highlight the magnitude of the problem of rehabilitation and corrective treatment in prisons, particularly at Borstal level? Can the Minister say what specific action the Government have taken to try to solve the problem?

Mr. Buchan

There are two points to be made here. In the first place, yes I am concerned that our penal institutions should also be reformatory institutions and there is a good deal of work to do to carry this out. The other point is that we can make wrong deductions from these figures. The only deduction that can be made from this high percentage is that among the many who commit criminal offences of any kind there will be a greater percentage who will commit crimes of violence than among the ordinary population.

Mr. Russell Johnston

Is there any evidence that this statistic is changing to any degree? Is the Minister satisfied that he is making any progress at all or is the statistic roughly the same from year to year?

Mr. Buchan

I am not aware of any sharp changes in this direction. To some exent the crimes of violence concerning us do not stem from the normal recidivist. Strangely enough recidivists in crimes of violence are not common.

Mr. Hugh D. Brown

Would my hon. Friend agree that if more money had been spent in the past to remedy overcrowded prisons we might have had a higher rate of rehabilitation?

Mr. Buchan

This is very true. One of the tasks that I have had has been to grapple with the problem arising from the failures in prison building in the past.