§ Mr. Dobsonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what has been the clear-up rate for murder in the Metropolitan police area in each of the last five years; and what it has been in the three police authority areas with the best clear-up rate for murder and the three areas with the worst, excluding the Metropolitan and City of London police.
§ Mr. Giles Shaw[pursuant to his reply, 3 December 1984, c. 4]: In cases of homocide it is not possible, in the absence of a court decision, to distinguish between offences of murder, manslaughter and infanticide. In the years 1979 to 1983 the clear-up rates for offences of homocide recorded in the Metropolitan Police District were 93 per cent., 95 per cent., 87 per cent., 77 per cent. and 89 per cent. respectively. Annual figures for other police force areas are subject to wider variation, especially for smaller police force areas, owing to the small numbers involved, variations in the type of case being dealt with, and because offences cleared up in one year may have been recorded in a previous year. Hence, the variation between police force areas is illustrated by the following table which gives for all offences of homocide recorded by the police aggregate figures for 1979 to 1983 for all police force areas.
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Offences of homocide recorded by the police, 1979–83 England and Wales Police Force Area Total recorded Number cleared-up Clear-up rate per cent. Avon and Somerset 52 49 94 Bedfordshire 29 27 93 Cambridgeshire 21 19 90 Cheshire 43 43 100 Cleveland 33 33 100 Cumbria 25 24 96 Derbyshire 36 34 94 Devon and Cornwall 63 60 95 Dorset 27 26 96 Durham 27 26 96 Essex 74 72 97 Gloucestershire 14 18 129 Greater Manchester 135 133 99 Hampshire 58 57 98 Hertfordshire 34 32 94 Humberside 79 74 94 Kent 59 55 93 Lancashire 74 73 99 Leicestershire 33 29 88 Lincolnshire 22 21 95 London City of 2 2 100 Merseyside 103 101 98 Metropolitan Police 855 754 88 Norfolk 25 25 100 Northamptonshire 41 34 83 Northumbria 74 73 99 North Yorkshire 32 33 103 Nottinghamshire 54 52 96 South Yorkshire 64 62 97 Staffordshire 34 32 94 Suffolk 18 16 89 Surrey 13 12 92 Sussex 55 54 98 Thames Valley 78 75 96 Warwickshire 26 26 100 West Mercia 41 40 98 West Midlands 205 201 98 West Yorkshire 149 140 94 Wiltshire 23 20 87 Dyfed Powys 17 18 106 Gwent 34 33 97 North Wales 32 31 97 South Wales 63 66 105 England and Wales 2,976 2,805 94 * The ratio of offences cleared-up in the period to offences recorded in the period.