§ Mr. Sillarsasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish figures for murder in England and Wales for the period 1945 to 1971; and if he will state the number of murders this year to the nearest available date.
§ Mr. R. CarrBecause of changes in legislation and in the basis of compilation of the statistics, no comparable figures covering the whole period can be given. Table I gives, for the years 1945 to 1956, the number of offences recorded by the police as murder and still so regarded at the time of going to press of the criminal statistics for the year concerned.
Table 1 1945 174 1946 144 1947 171 1948 162 1949 131 1950 138 1951 124 1952 141 1953 141 1954 145 1955 133 1956 150 For the years 1957 to 1971, Table II gives the latest corrected figure for murders known to the police, on the basis defined in chapter 5 of Criminal Statistics 1971.
Table II 1957 135 1958 114 1959 135 1960 123 1961 118 1962 129 1963 122 1964 135 1965 135 1966 122 1967 154 1968 148 1969 119 1970 135 1971 176 These figures are not comparable with those in Table I, first, because those in Table II exclude certain acquittals and discharges, secondly, because as a result of the Homicide Act 1957 some offences 281W which would previously have been classified as murder led to a verdict of "diminished responsibility" manslaughter. These points are more fully explained in paragraphs 8 and 9 of "Murder 1957 to 1968", a copy of which I am sending to the hon. Member.
Comparable figures for 1972 will not be available until the summer of 1973.
§ Sir Bernard Braineasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many convictions there were for manslaughter, excluding cases of motoring manslaughter prior to the separate classification introduced by the Road Traffic Act 1957, in each of the years 1931, 1951, 1961 and 1971;
(2) how many convictions there were for murder in each of the years 1931, 1951, 1961, and 1971.
§ Mr. R. CarrThe following is the available information:
Persons found guilty in 1931, 1951, 1961 and 1971 in England and Wales of offences of murder and manslaughter. Murder* Manslaughtert† 1931 18 40 1951 21 71 1961 51 92 1971 97 195 *Murder figures for years up to 1956 are not comparable with those for years from 1957 onwards: as a result of the Homicide Act 1957, some offences which would previously have been classified as murder may now lead to a verdict of "diminished responsibility" manslaughter. †Figures relating to persons found guilty of "motoring manslaughter" are not separately available. The Road Traffic Act 1956 created the offence of causing death by dangerous driving; the above table does not include figures relating to this offence.