HC Deb 14 June 1973 vol 857 cc1684-5
16. Mr. Grevile Janner

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will make it his policy to call for regular reports from chief constables giving annual statistics on missing persons in a unified manner.

Mr. Lane

My center hon. Friend does not think that the value of such statistics would justify the work which would now be involved for the police in compiling them. But the police national computer will in due course include a wanted and missing persons index, and it will then be considered what statistics can be provided from that source.

Mr. Janner

Is the Minister aware that an incredible variety of standards is applied at the moment? There is such a variety that the London figure provided to me turned out to be one-fifth of the true total for last year. Is the hon. Gentleman aware that approximately 150,000 people are going adrift in a year and that approximately 75 per cent. of those people are under the age of 18? Is that not a matter which requires urgent attention?

Mr. Lane

I am aware of the varied statistics. I thought that I cleared up in an Adjournment debate the point about London. I do not accept what the hon. and learned Gentleman says. The important matter is that in whatever form the statistics come forward the police take great trouble to trace missing persons in all parts of the country. In the majority of areas the success rate of the police in tracing missing persons is between 99 per cent. and 100 per cent.

Mr. Ronald King Murray

Will the Minister confirm that the national police computer to which he has referred will cover the whole of the United Kingdom and not only England and Wales? Does he agree that there would seem to be little point in having statistics for only a part of the country and not for the whole country?

Mr. Lane

I believe that is so. I do not want to give an absolute answer today. It will clearly be very important. I understand that the hon. and learned Member for Leicester, North-West (Mr. Greville Janner) is writing a long list of questions which we shall be answering shortly.