§ Mr. C. Osborneasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many murders are known to the police for the 11 months of 1960 to date; and what were the corresponding figures for each of the previous nine years, respectively.
78Wboroughs of Wales and Monmouthshire at the present time; how many new licences have been granted in the last five years; and how many licences have been either withdrawn or cancelled.
§ Mr. R. A. ButlerThe numbers of licensed premises (including off licences) and registered clubs open at 30th June, 1960 (the latest date for which figures are available) and the numbers opened and closed during the preceding five years are given in the table below:
§ Mr. R. A. ButlerThe number of offences of murder known to the police is recorded in the Criminal Statistics on the basis of calendar years, and it is impossible to provide statistics on a strictly comparable basis for periods of 11 months. The following are the numbers of murders known to the police in each of the calendar years 1951 to 1959:
79W These are the numbers of offences originally recorded by the police as murder, less those in which, up to the end of the calendar year, the police found that no murder had been committed, and those disposed of by the courts as offences other than murder.
Year Number 1951 132 1952 146 1953 143 1954 146 1955 135 1956 156 1957 166 1958 137 1959 149 The numbers of murders recorded as known to the police during the first 11 months of 1960, and not so far decided not to be murders, is 142. Some of these may be removed from the statistics before the final figure of offences known to the police in 1960 is computed.
The figures for 1957 and subsequent years are not directly comparable with those for earlier years because the Homicide Act, 1957, which came into operation on 21st March, 1957, altered the definition of murder and provided that, in certain circumstances, persons who would have been found guilty of murder before the Act came into operation might in future be found guilty of manslaughter.