§ Mr. William Rossasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will publish a table in the Official Report showing from 1 January 1969 to the latest available date the number of deaths in Northern Ireland which have arisen from the present civil unrest on an annual basis; how many of those deaths resulted from actions taken by, respectively, the Regular Army, the Ulster Defence Regiment, the Royal Ulster Constabulary and its reserves and each of the known terrorist or paramilitary groups; and if he will categorize the deaths by reference to which branch of the security forces or organisation the deceased belonged.
§ Mr. Scott[pursuant to his reply, 4 July 1984, c. 201]: The numbers of deaths between 1 January 1969 and 30 June 1984 due to civil unrest in Northern Ireland and the categories into which they fall, are as follows:
Year Army UDR RUC (including Reserve) Civilians Total 1969 — — 1 12 13 1970 — — 2 23 25 1971 43 5 11 115 174 1972 103 26 17 321 467 1973 58 8 13 171 250 1974 28 7 15 166 216 1975 14 6 11 216 247 1976 14 15 23 245 297 1977 15 14 14 69 112 1978 14 7 10 50 81 1979 38 10 14 51 113 1980 8 8 9 50 75 1981 10 13 21 57 101 1982 21 7 12 57 97 1983 5 10 18 44 77 1984 (to 30 June) 6 7 7 19 39 Total 377 143 198 1,666 2,384 It is impossible to say for certain how many terrorists are included amongst the civilian deaths.
253 of the deaths occurred as a result of actions by the security forces. 212 of these involved members of the Army; six involved members of the UDR; and 35 involved members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary and its reserve. It is believed that Republican terrorist organisations have been responsible for 1,418 deaths and Loyalist terrorist organisations for 654 deaths (these include terrorists killed by their own actions), but it is impossible to be more precise about particular terrorist groups.