§ Mr. Teddy Taylorasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many murders were made known to the police and how many persons were convicted of murder, manslaughter and violence, respectively, in the most recent annual period for which figures are available; and what were the comparable figures in each of the previous 20 years.
Mr. Brittan: In a case of homicide, it is not possible in the absence of a court decision to distinguish between offences of murder, manslaughter and infanticide, and so for offences recorded by the police only the total number of homicides is recorded. The information available is published annually in "Criminal Statistics, England and Wales"—chapter 9, and table 10 (a) of the volume for 1978 (Cmnd. 7670). The only information so far available for 1979 relates to offences of homicide recorded by the police, on a slightly different basis from the figures in chapter 9 of Cmnd. 7670. and was published in Home Office statistical bulletin 9/80, a copy of which has been placed in the Library of the House.