HC Deb 12 December 1975 vol 902 cc397-8W
Mr. Knox

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prison officers in England and Wales were murdered in the course of duty during each of the past 10 years.

Dr. Summerskill

One, in 1965; none subsequently.

Mr. Knox

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many murders were committed in England and Wales in each of the last 10 years.

Mr. Alexander W. Lyon

It has been found that cases of murder are often indistinguishable from other homicides—i.e., manslaughter and infanticide—in the absence of court decisions; this is reflected in the change of classification of such offences for the purpose of the criminal statistics from 1973 onwards (of Chapter 7 ofCriminal Statistics 1973 (Cmnd. 5677)).

The following table gives figures for offences currently recorded as homicide together with the number of those offences subsequently decided by the courts to be murder:

year of Recording by the Police Number of offences of Homicide Number subsequently decided by the Courts to be Murder
1965 N.A.* 54
1966 N.A.* 64
1967 354 67
1968 360 73
1969 332 69
1970 342 91
1971 406 84
1972 412 88
1973 391 82
1974 535 150
* The number of homicide offences on the current classification is not available for the years up to and including 1966. Information about murder in terms of the former classification is available in the annual volumes of the Criminal Statistics up to and including 1972.

Mr. Knox

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers in England and Wales were murdered in the course of duty during each of the past 10 years.

Mr. Alexander W. Lyon

The following is the informationPolice officers on duty who were victims of homicide, England and Wales, 1965–1974: cases subsequently decided by the court to be murder.

Year of recording by the police Number of Offences
1965 1
1966 4
1967
1968
1969
1970 1
1971 2
1972 1
1973 1
1974 1