§ 2.28 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:
§ To 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 MINISTER OF STATE, HOME OFFICE (EARL JELLICOE)My Lords, from March 21, 1957, when the Homicide Act came into force, until the end of 1961, 661 murders became known to the police in England and Wales. The figure far the corresponding period before the Act was 671. The figures exclude cases originally recorded as murder but later found not to be murder. The figures for the two periods are not strictly comparable because the Act changed the definition of murder. The principal change was the introduction of the special defence of diminished responsibility. One hundred and twenty-eight offences originally recorded as murder during the period from March 21, 1957, to the end of 1961 have been reduced to manslaughter on that ground.
§ THE EARL OF SELBORNEMy Lords, do not those figures show that 180 people have been murdered who would not have been murdered if the Act had not been passed?
EARL JELLICOEMy Lords, I am afraid I did not quite catch the noble Earl's supplementary; I apologise.
§ THE EARL OF SELBORNEMy Lords, do not these figures show that about 180 people have been murdered since the Act was passed who would not have been murdered if that Act had not been passed?
§ BARONESS WOOTTON OF ABINGERMy Lords, is the noble Earl able to give figures which distinguish between capital and non-capital murder after the passing of the Act?
EARL JELLICOEMy Lords, of the 661 murders to which I referred, 111 have been recorded as capital and 550 as non-capital murders.