§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what are the numbers of known attacks made upon persons in the Metropolitan Police area in each of the last five years; and to what extent these can be attributed to stated ethnic groups.
§ Mr. MayhewI understand from the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis that the available information is as given in the following table. It will be seen that the ethnic appearance of attackers was identified in only about 70 per cent. of the offences recorded. The—unrecorded—composition by ethnic appearance of attackers for the "not known" offences could differ substantially from year to year and the numbers involved could be large enough to invalidate conclusions based solely on the offences for which the ethnic appearance of attackers was recorded.
Offences of assault, robbery and other violent theft recorded by the police, by ethnic appearance of attacker*
Metropolitan Police District, Number of Offences Ethnic appearance of attackers* Year White Coloured Mixed gang Not known Total 1976 † † † † 22,742 1977 8,260 8,533 769 8,231 25,793 1978 8,962 8,328 1,278 8,339 26,907 1979 9,818 8,315 1,073 8,855 28,061 1980 10,687 9,473 1,309 8,654 30,123 * Where no arrest is made the classification is based on the assessment of the victim or witnesses. †not available.