HC Deb 22 July 1975 vol 896 cc115-6W
Mr. Snape

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he can make an estimate of the cost to public funds

The Attorney-General

The available information is as follows:

(i) Number of petitions filed for dissolution or nullity of marriage or judicial separation.

Period By husbands By wives
1960 to 1964 73,511 101,407
1965 to 1969 98,216 159,778
1970 to 1974 190,090 351,998

(ii) A petition can only be withdrawn before it is served. This rarely happens and no records are maintained. The following table shows how suits set down for hearing were disposed of in the periods 1965 to 1969 and 1970 to 1974. Earlier figures are not available:

causes. The following table gives details of decrees granted to petitioners and respodents for the same periods.

of the extra police employed for traffic control purposes in connection with the Royal Garden Party on 15th July.

Dr. Summerskill

The police officers concerned were on normal tours of duty, and their deployment for this occasion entailed no additional costs.

Mr. Hooley

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will institute an official inquiry into the practice of the police in detaining persons for questioning, with a view to introducing a code of model rules on this subject.

Dr. Summerskill

Police powers of arrest and the grounds on which they may be exercised are defined by law, and remedies exist for any wrongful exercise of those powers. We are willing to look into any case, not currently the subject of court proceedings, about which my hon. Friend may be concerned.