§ 2.47 p.m.
§ THE EARL OF SELBORNEMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ ask Her Majesty's Government whether they can estimate the approximate number of murders that have been committed since the Homicide Act, 1957, was passed, and whether they can give a similar estimate for the number of murders that occurred in the corresponding period before the passing of that Act.]
THE JOINT PARLIAMENTARY UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (EARL BATHURST)My Lords, the number of murders known to the police in England and Wales in the period from March 21, 1957, when the Homicide Act came into force, to the end of 1960, excluding cases originally recorded as murder but later found not to be murder, was 528. The number for the corresponding period before the Act came into force 1114 was 517. The figures for the two periods are not strictly comparable because the Act changed the definition of murder. The principal change was the introduction in Section 2 of the defence of diminished responsibility. In the period from March 21, 1957, to the end of 1960, 100 persons were found guilty under this section of manslaughters committed since the Act came into force. I regret that the figures for Soctland are not available in the form for which the noble Earl has asked.
§ THE EARL OF SELBORNEMy Lords, does that not show that there have been over 100 more murders since that Act was passed than there were before?