§ Mr. Eldon Griffithsasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish in the Official Report the number of assualts on persons over the age of 60 reported to the police in the Metropolitan area; and the number of robberies and burglaries reported by such persons to the police in the years 1977–80 respectively.
§ Mr. Mayhew[pursuant to his reply, 31 July 1981, c. 661–62]: I understand from the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis that the available information is given in the following table. Information is not collected centrally by the Metropolitan Police on the age of victims of offences of burglary. In many cases the age of the victim of assault or robbery was not recorded. In 1977, but not in subsequent years, the Metropolitan Police made an estimate of the age. For assault in particular there was a large number of cases in 1978–80 where the age was unknown, and so trends based only on figures where the age of the victim is shown could be misleading. For robbery, the 1980 figures are not directly comparable with those for earlier years because of a change in the basis of counting victims of robbery.
Certain serious offences recorded by the police by age of victim Metropolitan Police District Offence Year Total Victim's age 0舑60 61 and over Unknown Assaults, etc. 1977* 13,307 12,851 456 舒 1978 14,596 13,125 426 1,045 1979 16,233 14,383 468 1,382 1980 16,029 14,038 522 1,469 Robbery 1977* 7,832 6,946 886 舒 1978 7,401 6,404 823 174 1979 6,824 6,060 730 34 1980舤 7,391 6,525 813 53 *In 1977 only, figures by age group include estimates of the age of victims with unreported ages.† Figures for 1980 are not directly comparable with those for previous years because the counting basis was changed.