§ 40 and 41. Sir J. Lucasasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if his attention has been drawn to the increasing number of robberies in the Greater London area in which iron bars have been used as coshes; and if he will give comparative figures for such robberies during the last convenient period 100W of twelve months and for the corresponding period say, four years ago;
(2) in view of the serious and often lasting injuries caused to innocent people by the use of iron bars as coshes, what steps have been taken to enable suitable punishment to be awarded to the attackers if convicted.
§ Mr. R. A. ButlerThe number of robberies known to the police in the Metropolitan Police District in which coshes or blunt instruments of some kind were used was 63 in 1957 and 48 in 1953. I regret that figures are not available to show in how many of these cases the instrument in question was an iron bar. The maximum penalty for either robbery with violence or felonious wounding is life imprisonment.