§ Mr. Robin F. Cookasked the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) if he will publish in the Official Report the figures in each of the past five years of (a) prosecutions of men aged over 21 years for homosexual conduct in private with a consenting partner aged over 16 years but under 21 years, (b) prosecutions against the younger partner in such cases and (c) convictions in such cases;
(2) if he will publish in the Official Report the figures in each of the past five years of (a) prosecutions of men aged over 16 years but under 21 years for homosexual conduct in private with a consenting partner of the same age range, (b) prosecutions in such cases of the other person and (c) convictions in such cases.
§ Mr. Harry EwingI regret that the information requested is not available. Homosexual conduct may, depending on its nature, be the subject of prosecutions either for the common law offence of sodomy, or for the offence of gross indecency under Section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885. It is not possible to distinguish within the numbers of prosecutions and convictions for these offences those which relate to homosexual conduct in private where consenting persons aged between 16 and 21 years are involved. Such prosecutions are extremely rare, if not unknown, since the requirement in the criminal law of Scotland of corroboration makes it improbable that sufficient evidence to justify a prosecution could ever be obtained in such cases.