§ Lord Rentonasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many mentally handicapped people who do not suffer from any other mental disorder have been convicted of homicide and causing grievous bodily harm respectively in each of the last 20 years.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord Belstead)The only information readily available is given in the following table. In this table offences of violence against the person include offences other than homicide and causing grievous bodily harm; more detailed analysis would involve disproportionate cost. Those subnormal or severely subnormal convicted persons who were not admitted to hospital cannot be separately identified. In addition, some of the average of about nine persons per year who were transferred to hospital from prison department establishments under Section 72 or 72 and 74 of the Act suffering from subnormality or severe subnormality may have been convicted of an offence of violence against the person but their number could be identified only at disproportionate cost.
Persons suffering from subnormality or severe subnormality but no other mental disorder received into hospital or made subject to guardianship under Sections 60 or 60/65 of the Mental Health Act 1959 having committed offences of violence against the person:
1427WA
Year Number of persons 1961 22 1962 19 1963 16 1964 19 1965 28 1966 30 1967 29 1968 35 1969 29 1970 23 1971 21 1972 20
Year Number of persons 1973 17 1974 14 1975 17 1976 19 1977 7 1978 10 1979 6 1980 6