§ Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will seek powers to prevent the publication of the names and addresses of persons his Department considers likely to be vulnerable to terrorist attacks.
§ Mr. Merlyn ReesI shall reply to the hon. Member as soon as possible.
§ Mr. Gowasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what is the total number of people serving prison sentences for offences connected with terrorism in Northern Ireland; and what were the equivalent figures in each of the past five years.
§ Mr. Concannon,pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 1st July 1976; Vol 914 c. 258], gave the following information:
Prison records do not separately identify persons convicted of terrorist-type offences. However, special category prisoners have all been convicted of offences connected with the civil disturbances, and on 27th June 1976 there were 1,240 such prisoners; the equivalent figures were: 1st July 1973, 661; 1st July 1974, 911; 1st July 1975, 1,348.
There are no figures for the years before the introduction of special category, in June 1972, and separate statistics for this group were not available until towards the end of that year.
§ Mr. Gowasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many unmanned road crossing points there are between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland; and what was the number on the same date in each of the past five years.
§ Mr. Merlyn Rees,pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 1st July 1976; Vol. 914, c. 257], gave the following information:
There are 268 border crossings that have no permanent security forces surveillance or Her Majesty's Customs and 425W Excise presence on the United Kingdom side. Of this total, 173 crossings are blocked and have been rendered impassable to motorised traffic. This has been the general position for the past five years, but it would not be possible without disproportionate effort to give the exact figures. All border crossings are kept under surveillance according to the demands of the security situation and the resources of manpower available.
§ Mr. Gowasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what was the total number of terrorist incidents, in each category, including bomb attacks, murders and woundings, and damage to property in the period 1st January 1976 down to the latest available date; and what were the similar figures for each of the last five years.
§ Mr. Merlyn Rees,pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 1st July 1976; Vol. 914, c. 257], gave the following information:
Subject to revision in individual cases, the figures of security incidents for the period 1st January to 29th June 1976 are as follows:
Shooting incidents … … 884 Explosions … … 384 Bombs neutralized … … 234 Deaths: Civilians … … 145 Deaths: Army/UDR … … 13 Deaths' RUC/RUC(R) … … 15 Injuries: Civilians … … 1,178 Injuries: Army/UDR … … 102 Injuries: RUC/RUC(R) … … 140 Figures for these categories in each of the last five years are contained in the last quarterly summary of security statistics placed in the Library of the House on 14th April 1976.