HC Deb 15 June 1978 vol 951 cc610-1W
Mr. Norman Atkinson

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people, being suspected of an arrestable offence under Section 4 of the Vagrants Act 1824, were arrested in the whole of the London Metropolitan Police area and in the "Y" Division of that area during the last 12 months as compared with the previous 12 months; how many of those so arrested were later charged and how many were convicted; and if these figures can be broken down by ethnic origin.

Dr. Summerskill

Information about arrests and the ethnic origin of persons proceeding against is not collected centrally. The Metropolitan Police record the ethnic appearance of arrested persons

PERSONS ARRESTED FOR FREQUENTING WITH INTENT TO COMMIT AN ARRESTABLE OFFENCE IN 'Y' DIVISION AND IN THE WHOLE OF THE METROPOLITAN POLICE DISTRICT—BY ETHNIC APPEARANCE
Number of persons
'Y' Division Metropolitan Police District
Ethnic appearance 1976 1977 1976 1977
White-skinned European 41 24 1,098 1,197
Dark-skinned European 1 2 60 48
Black-skinned (including West Indian/African) 18 23 887 1,042
Indian/Pakistani 1 37 45
Chinese/Japanese 4 5
Arabian/Egyptian 24 27
Not known 2 2
Total 61 49 2,112 2,366

The numbers of those so arrested who were proceeded against and convicted are not available, but the total number of persons proceeded against in 1976 in the Metropolitan Police district whose principal non-indictable offence was frequenting with intent to commit an arrestable offence was 1,914. The corresponding figure for 1977 is not yet available.