Mr. J. Enoch Powellasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland when he expects to publish the security statistics for the first quarter of 1981; and whether he will append the statistics for the first two months of the second quarter.
§ Mr. Humphrey AtkinsI have reviewed the practice of publishing these statistics on a quarterly basis, and have concluded that figures covering a longer period of six months would provide a better basis for comparison in future. Instead of publishing figures for the first quarter of 1981 and for the first two months of the second quarter, I propose therefore to publish figures for the six months to the end of June as soon as they are available. I shall also take the opportunity to revise slightly the categories of information recorded.