§ 58. Mr. Shepherdasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what figures he has relating to blackmail cases, for the last five years, showing the extent to which heterosexual and homosexual activities, respectively, were a constituent element in these cases.
§ Mr. R. A. ButlerThe numbers of offences of blackmail known to the police in the last five years have been as follows:
1955 … … … … 92 1956 … … … … 119 1957 … … … … 121 1958 … … … … 164 1959 … … … … 160 I regret that the statistics do not show the extent to which sexual activities were a constituent element in these cases, and the information could not be obtained without extensive inquiries which I do not consider justified.