§ Mr. George Cunninghamasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many prosecutions were brought in respect of the offence of being a suspected person loitering with intent in each of the past three years; and what was the breakdown between police force areas;
(2) what proportion of prosecutions brought for the offence of being a suspected person and loitering with intent to commit an arrestable offence has resulted in conviction in any periods for which figures are available.
§ Mr. BrittanThe total numbers of persons proceeded against and found guilty in England and Wales of offences of being a suspected person frequenting a public place with intent to commit an arrestable 541W offence are published annually in the "Criminal Statistics, England and Wales"—offence classification 186 in table 1(a) of the volume for 1978, Cmnd. 7670. The additional information requested is given in the following table.
PERSONS PROCEEDED AGAINST FOR OFFENCES OF BEING A SUSPECTED PERSON FREQUENTING A PUBLIC PLACE WITH INTENT TO COMMIT AN ARRESTABLE OFFENCE BY POLICE FORCE AREA England and Wales Numbers and percentages Police force area … 1976 1977 1978 Avon and Somerset … 17 20 13 Bedfordshire … 4 6 8 Cambridgeshire … 3 8 10 Cheshire … 29 29 42 Cleveland … 14 14 25 Cumbria … 5 4 22 Derbyshire … 5 10 9 Devon and Cornwall … 22 21 15 Dorset … — 5 8 Durham … 1 4 4 Essex … 9 12 14 Gloucestershire … 3 8 8 Greater Manchester … 250 240 263 Hampshire … 65 45 50 Hertfordshire … 4 8 5 Humberside … 32 27 28 Kent … 3 3 5 Lancashire … 54 26 57 Leicestershire … 4 9 6 Lincolnshire … — 4 3 London, City of … 49 69 89 Merseyside … 415 489 553 Metropolitan Police District 1,914 1,890 1,970 Norfolk … 4 7 11 Northamptonshire … 6 5 5 Northumbria … 42 45 44 North Yorkshire … 12 8 14 Nottinghamshire … 14 13 27 South Yorkshire … 18 16 26 Staffordshire … 18 19 18 Suffolk … 4 8 2 Surrey … 4 1 3 Sussex … 15 4 15 Thames Valley … 43 21 28 Warwickshire … 1 — 6 West Mercia … 3 1 7 West Midlands … 167 139 167 West Yorkshire … 82 69 85 Wiltshire … 5 5 2 England … 3,340 3,312 3,667 Dyfed-Powys … 3 5 5 Gwent … 1 — 3 North Wales … 9 5 4 South Wales … 148 125 112 Wales … 161 135 124 England and Wales— Total … 3,501 3,447 3,791 Percentage found guilty 78 75 73