§ Baroness WOOTTON of ABINGERasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether in Table 5.1. on page 46 of the 1975 Criminal Statistics for England and Wales the figures for "currently recorded homicides" (451 in 1975) do or do not include cases of causing death by dangerous driving; and if these are included, under which heading are they covered; and if they are not included, what is the reason for the omission.
§ The MINISTER of STATE, HOME OFFICE (Lord Harris of Greenwich)In Table 5.1 and throughout Chapter 5 of the 1975 Criminal Statistics (Cmnd. 6566) the term "homicide" is used to cover murder, manslaughter and infanticide as stated in paragraph 5.1. Since 1973 these offences have been grouped together in statistical publications because it is not in general possible to distinguish between them in the absence of court proceedings. This is not the case with the offence of causing death by dangerous driving. These offences (690 in 1974) are shown in Table 2.1. If such an offence were subsequently reclassified as murder or manslaughter it would be included in the figure currently recorded as homicide for the year in which it was reclassified.