§ Miss Fookesasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, in the last year for which figures are available, how many women have received prison sentences for soliciting.
§ Mr. MayhewInformation on the number of females proceeded against at magistrates's courts for offences of prostitution, nearly all of which were offences of
loitering or soliciting in a public place for the purposes of prostitutionis published annually in "Criminal statistics, England and Wales" under offence classification 166—table l(a), page 218 of the volume for 1979, Cmnd. 8098. All the 479 sentenced in 1979 to suspended or immediate imprisonment were convicted of 381Wloitering or soliciting in a public place for the purposes of prostitution".