§ Mr. Bradfordasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many persons were murdered in each of the years 1952 to 1979 inclusive in England and Wales.
§ Mr. BrittanIn a case of homicide, it is not possible in the absence of a court decision to distinguish between offences of murder, manslaughter and infanticide. The number of offences initially recorded by the police as homicide for the years 1957 to 1978 and the number of offences decided by the court to be murder for the years 1968 to 1978 are published in Tables 9.1 and 9.3 of " Criminal Statistics, England and Wales, 1978 " (Cmnd. 7670); one offence is 357W counted for each victim. Information for 1979 is not yet available. The information available for earlier years is given in the following table:
Offences initially recorded by the police as homicide and offences decided by the courts to be murder
ENGLAND AND WALES Year Offences initially recorded by the police as homicide Number of offences Offences decided by the courts to be murder 1952 400 .. 1953 327 .. 1954 311 .. 1955 279 .. 1956 315 .. 1957 36 1958 26 1959 44 1960 41 1961 38 1962 38 1963 38 1964 47 1965 54 1966 64 1967 66 Not available.