§ LORD AILWYNMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the second Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government how many persons in the last decade who have been released from prison after being convicted of sexual crime have subsequently been reconvicted of a further offence of the same nature.]
EARL BATHURSTMy Lords, I am sorry that this information is not available. However, the Report published in 1957 of an inquiry carried out by the Cambridge Department of Criminal Science, now the Institute of Criminology, into sexual offences contains relevant information. It shows that, of the persons sentenced to imprisonment for sexual offences whose after-conduct was observed, 24 per cent. were reconvicted of sexual offences within a period of less than four years following their discharge from prison. For persons sentenced to imprisonment for heterosexual offences the reconviction rate was 17 per cent.; the corresponding figure for homosexual offences was 30 per cent. and for offences of indecent exposure 28 per cent.
§ LORD AILWYNI am much obliged to my noble friend.