§ Mr. Meacherasked the Attorney-General how many complaints against police officers alleging assault were referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions for each year since 1970; how many in each year led to prosecution; what per-
1 2 3 4 5 6 Year Complaints against police alleging assault Total number that were prosecuted Percentage of 2 represented by 3 Total number of convictions Percentage of 2 represented by 5 1970 … 1,093 19 1.74 7 0.64 1971 … 1,126 27 2.40 8 0.71 1972 … 1,638 35 2.14 12 0.73 1973 … 1,868 19 1.02 8 0.43 1974 … 1,982 30 1.51 15 0.76 1975 … 2,405 47 1.95 25 1.04 1976 … 2,645 33 1.25 19 0.72 1977 … 2,888 40 1.39 17 0.59 1978 … 2,820* 37 1.31 16 0.57 1979 … 2,572 Figures not yet available * 34 complaints are outstanding. The last two questions concern penalties, records of which the Director of Public Prosecutions does not keep. Most pre-1974 files will have been destroyed, so that this information cannot be obtained from them. Whilst the information could be obtained from files of 1974 and onwards, this would require examining more than 39,000 files and the cost of doing so would be disproportionate to the value of the information.