Mr. W. E. Garrettasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many reports on research carried out by the Home Office Research Unit have been published since 1975; and to what effect.
§ Mr. Merlyn ReesThe results of the substantial programme of social research carried out by my Department's research unit are published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office in the Home Office research studies series, in the unit's ownResearch Bulletin, and in various journals. The research studies series now contains 45 titles, of which 20 have been issued since the beginning of 1975; five issues of the Research Bulletin—which is distributed to courts, local authorities and universities as well as to the police, prison and probation services—have been produced in the last three and a half years, and about 40 articles have been published in journals over the same period. This body of research has influenced policy, both directly through the findings of individual projects and more generally through the cumulative results of projects with a common theme, the findings are also of use to practitioners in the various services, are valued by research workers at home and abroad, and are of general public interest.