HC Deb 05 December 1985 vol 88 cc307-9W
15. Mr. Cohen

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of recorded notifiable offences were cleared up by the police in the Metropolitan police district in 1979 and 1984, respectively.

Mr. Giles Shaw

108,907, or 21 per cent., of recorded notifiable offences were cleared up by the police in the Metropolitan police district in 1979 and, 119,565, or 17 per cent. in 1984.

29. Mr. Nicholas Brown

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many juvenile offenders received youth custody sentences in 1984; and by what percentage this exceeded the number who received borstal sentences in 1982.

Mr. Mellor

Detailed statistics of sentencing are published annually in "Criminal Statistics, England and Wales". Statistics of sentencing for indictable offences are presented in chapter 7 of the 1984 issue (Cmnd. 9621) and table 7.16 gives the relevant figures. Statistics of sentencing of juveniles for all offences are given in the "Supplementary Tables", in volume 1, table S1.1(C), for magistrates' courts and in volume 2, table S 1.2(C), for the Crown court. 2,300 persons aged 14 and under 17 were sentenced to youth custody in 1984, 50 per cent. more than were sentenced to borstal training in 1982.

30. Mr. Tony Banks

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of all offenders released from youth custody centres and what proportion of juvenile offenders are reconvicted within two years.

Mr. Mellor

The readily available information on juveniles and young adults reconvicted within two years of discharge from prison department establishments is published annually in "Prison Statistics England and Wales". (Information about those discharged in 1981 is given in tables 8(e), 8.4 and 8.5 of the latest issue for 1984, Cmnd. 9622). Figures for youth custody trainees are not yet available.

31. Mr. Guy Barnett

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the absolute and percentage increase in the number of offences of robbery recorded by the police between 1979 and 1984.

Mr. Mellor

The number of offences of robbery recorded by the police increased by 12,400 or 99 per cent. between 1979 and 1984. Statistics of offences recorded by the police are published annually in "Criminal Statistics, England and Wales", and figures for recorded offences of robbery are given in table 2.10 of the latest issue for 1984 (Cmnd. 9621).

33. Mr. Stan Thorne

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the number of untried and unsentenced prisoners in England and Wales at the most recent convenient date; and by what percentage this has risen since the same date in 1984.

Mr. Mellor

On 31 October 1985, about 9,700 untried and convicted unsentenced prisoners were in prison department establishments in England and Wales, an increase of 2 per cent. compared with a year earlier.

42. Mr. Haynes

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the number of untried and unsentenced prisoners in England and Wales at the most recent convenient date; and by what percentage this has risen since the same date in 1979.

Mr. Mellor

On 31 October 1985, about 9,700 untried and convicted unsentenced prisoners were in prison department establishments in England and Wales, an increase of 48 per cent. compared with 31 October 1979.

45. Ms. Clare Short

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what information is recorded by his Department on the age, sex, residence and occupation of victims of crime.

Mr. Mellor

Information on individual victims of crime is not regularly collected centrally except in respect of victims of homicide. However, it is the usual practice of police forces to record the addresses of victims, and about half of all police forces regularly record their age and sex, but not, I believe, their occupations. The Department has recently carried out an ad hoc survey of such information for those forces that record it, and in due course the main results will be published.

More information is however collected in the British crime survey, which has been published.

73. Mr. Ashdown

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what use he makes of the criminal statistics as an index of the actual amount of crime at any time.

Mr. Mellor

The statistics published in "Criminal Statistics" provide a measure of the amount of crime as recorded by the police. They therefore do not provide a full picture of the amount of crime committed, and are supplemented by other relevant data, in particular the results of the British crime surveys.

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