§ 28. Mr. Goodhartasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will make a statement about 238W the report prepared by Dr. William Belson on stealing by schoolchildren in London.
§ Mr. Roy JenkinsThis research was commissioned by my predecessor in 1960 and was funded by the Home Office for a period of 10 years at a total cost of £120,800. The research is founded on the response of 1,425 London boys to questions about 44 categories of theft behaviour from fare evasion to serious offences. These interviews were largely completed by 1966. I have studied the findings and recommendations of the report. The data are old; some of the conclusions are obvious, and others are, in my view and that of my advisers, not well founded. They do not offer a direction for future policy changes.