HL Deb 15 June 1977 vol 384 cc284-5WA
Lord HAILSHAM of SAINT MARYLEBONE

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What was the average number for the 10 years prior to 1967 in England and Wales and Scotland respectively of the following crimes so far as known to the police:

  1. (i) murder, manslaughter and infanticide (or Scottish equivalents);
  2. (ii) attempts to commit murder;
  3. (iii) assaults with intent to murder or cause grievous bodily harm;
and the figures for the same crimes for the last three years in respect of which figures are known.

Lord HARRIS of GREENWICH

Table 1 below shows, for England and Wales, the average number of offences of homicide (murder, manslaughter and infanticide); attempted murder; and wounding or other act endangering life during the years 1957–66 inclusive, and the number of such offences in 1973, 1974 and 1975 recorded as known to the police in England and Wales.

TABLE 1: OFFENCES OF HOMICIDE, ATTEMPTED MURDER AND WOUNDING OR OTHER ACT ENDANGERING LIFE RECORDED AS KNOWN TO THE POLICE
England and Wales Number of victims
Offence1 Annual average 1957–1966 1973 1974 1975
Homicide 3002 4653 5993 5l03
Attempted murder 200 429 371 4994
Wounding or other act endangering life5 1,872 3,891 4,240 4,399
1Some of the offences shown will subsequently have been decided by the courts to be lesser offences or not to be offences at all.
Prior to 1973, offences initially recorded as murder which were decided by the courts, within the year of recording, not to be homicide were not included.
3Excluding offences written off as "no crime" during the year of recording or subsequently.
4This figure includes 62 cases of attempted murder arising from two bombing incidents that occurred in the previous year, 1974.
5Assaults with intent to commit murder are recorded as "attempted murder". Assaults with intent to cause grievous bodily harm are included within the group "wounding or other act endangering life".

Table 2 shows, for Scotland, the average number of crimes of homicide (murder and culpable homicide), attempts to murder and serious assault during the years 1957–66 inclusive and the number of such crimes in 1973, 1974 and 1975 known to the police in Scotland. These figures, which show the number of incidents, are not comparable with those for England and Wales, which show the number of victims.

TABLE 2: CRIMES OF HOMICIDE, ATTEMPTS TO MURDER AND SERIOUS ASSAULTS KNOWN TO THE POLICE
Scotland Number of incidents
19751
Annual Average 1957–1966 1973 1974 adjusted actual
All homicide 48 77 78 78 78
Attempts to murder 16 119 121 137 142
Serious assault 1,198 2,354 2,442 2,892 3,010
1The "actual" figures for attempts to murder and assaults for 1975 are not comparable with those for previous years because of changes in recording practice al the time of reorganisation of local government on 16th May 1975. The adjusted figures provide comparability with previous years.