§ 12. Sir T. Mooreasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will state the number of murders, including capital murders and manslaughter separately, since the Homicide Act became law; and if he will state the number of murders that were committed during the comparable period before the passing of the Homicide Act.
82W
§ Mr. R. A. ButlerThe number of murders known to the police in England and Wales from 21st March, 1957, when the Homicide Act came into force, to the end of 1961, excluding offences originally recorded as murder but later found not to be murder, was 661. Of these, 111 have been recorded as capital and 550 as non-capital murders. The total for the corresponding period before the Act came into force was 671.
The figures for the two periods are not strictly comparable because the Act changed the definition of murder. The principal change was the introduction of the defence of diminished responsibility. 128 offences originally recorded as murder during the period from 21st March, 1957, to the end of 1961 have been reduced to manslaughter on that ground.