HL Deb 10 November 1977 vol 387 c408WA
Lord GARDINER

asked Her Majesty's Government:

By what percentage the numbers of

  1. (1) indictable offences
  2. (2) police officers
in the London metropolis have increased since 1939.

The MINISTER of STATE, HOME OFFICE (Lord Harris of Greenwich)

The number of crimes known to the Metropolitan Police and the City of London Police in 1939 was 96,914. The number of indictable offences recorded as known to the same two forces in 1976 was 477,616. This gives an increase of 393 per cent., but because of changes in the law, in the boundaries of the Metropolitan Police District and in recording practice the figures are not precisely comparable.

The combined strengths of the two forces on 30th September 1939 was 19,935, as against 22,960 on 30th September this year, an increase of 15.1 per cent.

House adjourned at seventeen minutes past ten o'clock.