§ Mr. PendryTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 10 January,Official Report, column 492, regarding events at Football League matches for the first part of the 1988–89 season, if he will give a further breakdown of the figure of 543 arrests at fourth division matches up to 31 October 1988.
§ Mr. Douglas HoggFollowing my reply of 10 January, ACPO was informed of a substantial error in the return from one police force and the provisional total for division 4 has now been amended to 248.
At the end of each football season the Association of Chief Police Officers carefully reviews the returns from 43 individual forces relating to the number of arrests made at matches of the 92 Football League clubs. One part of a season is not comparable with another and where interim figures have been collected they have not been subjected to the same scrutiny. Since the provisional totals to 31 October 1988 have not been given a full end of season check, it would be inappropriate to publish a detailed breakdown, club by club, across the Football League or any division as a whole.