HC Deb 13 November 1979 vol 973 cc556-7W
Mr. Wm. Ross

asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will publish in the Official Report the statistics of the violence attributed to the Provisional Irish Republican Army, the Official Irish Republican Army, other Republican-oriented groups, and the figures for the Protestant para-military groups, also showing the totals for each heading for each of the last 10 years in Northern Ireland.

Mr. Humphrey Atkins

[pursuant to his reply, 12 November 1979]: Except in cases where a conviction for a scheduled offence is accompanied by a conviction for membership of a proscribed organisation, it would not be proper for me to ascribe any particular crime of violence to a particular organisation. Such cases would not be statistically meaningful, and their extraction would involve disproportionate cost. The statistics of terrorist activity from 1971 up to the end of the third quarter of this year are contained in part I of the answer I gave to the right hon. Member for Down, South (Mr. Powell) on 9 November.