§ Mr. William Hamiltonasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what percentage of total murders in each of the 88W last 10 years has involved a person, either victim or assailant, who was under the influence of alcohol.
§ Mr. RossIt would not be appropriate for me to attempt an authoritative estimate of the degree of intoxication of murderers and victims of murders. I am, however, again grateful to the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology at Edinburgh University for a provisional assessment of Scottish murder cases which suggests that in the two years 1962 and 1963 either victims or offenders, or both, had consumed a considerable amount of alcohol in 7.3 per cent. of cases, and that either or both had consumed a lesser but significant amount in 21.9 per cent. of cases. The provisional assessment suggests that for the two years 1966 and 1967 the comparable figures were 23.5 per cent. and 26.5 per cent. Estimates are not available for other years.