§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether, without involving disproportionate costs, he will give as much information as may be available on any basis which may be available on an area or regional basis giving the total numbers of reports and convictions for rape.
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§ Mr. JohnThe numbers of offences of rape recorded by the police in each police force area of England and Wales are published annually in "Criminal Statistics, England and Wales" (table 28 of the Volume for 1977, Cmnd. 7289). The latest information on convictions for offences of rape by police force area in England and Wales is given in the following table:
PERSONS FOUND GUILTY* OF RAPE, BY POLICE FORCE AREA ENGLAND AND WALES 1977 Police force Number of persons found guilty Avon and Somerset 10 Bedfordshire — Cambridgeshire 4 Cheshire 7 Cleveland 5 Cumbria 1 Derbyshire 6 Devon and Cornwall 7 Dorset 6 Durham 3 Essex 5 Gloucestershire 1 Greater Manchester 13 Hampshire 10 Hertfortshire 3 Humberside 10 Kent 10 Lancashire 4 Leicestershire 5 Lincolnshire 5 City of London 1 Merseyside 10 Metropolitan Police 36 Norfolk 3 Northamptonshire 4 Northumberland 8 North Yorkshire 7 Nottinghamshire 9 South Yorkshire 12 Staffordshire 1 Suffolk 1 Surrey 8 Sussex 4 Thames Valley 13 Warwickshire 4 West Mercia 2 West Midlands 37 West Yorkshire 22 Wiltshire 2 North Wales 1 South Wales 6 Total—England and Wales 313 * An offender may be dealt with by the courts in a later year than that in which the offence was recorded by the police.
§ Mr. Leeasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many complainants in rape offence trials ending with an acquittal of the accused person were proceeded against for perjury subse- 749W quently during 1978; what were the corresponding figures for 1976 and 1977; in how many such rape offence cases the defendant was acquitted at the end of the prosecution case on the direction of the judge: and if he is satisfied with the present state of the law in the light of special privileges accorded to rape offence complainants by the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1976.
§ Mr. JohnThe statistical information requested is not collected centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. The available information relates to the number of persons whose principal offence was rape and who were acquitted of this offence because the judge ruled that there was no case to answer; there were five such persons in 1976 and none in 1977. Information for 1978 is not yet available. As regards the last part of the question, I refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave to his question on 16 March.—[Vol. 964, c.342–3.]