§ Mr. Parrisasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will give figures for (a) the number of women imprisoned for soliciting imprisoned after a non-payment of a fine imposed for soliciting and prosecuted for soliciting in the last year before female soliciting ceased, under the terms of the Criminal Justice Act 1982, to be an imprisonable offence and (b) the number of women imprisoned for non-payment of a fine for soliciting, and the number of prosecutions for female soliciting in the year following that change.
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§ Mr. MellorSection 71 of the Criminal Justice Act 1982, which abolished imprisonment for loitering and soliciting for purposes of prostitution, was implemented on 31 January 1983. For the readily available information on the numbers of prostitutes committed into custody in default of payment of a fine in the calendar years 1982 and 1983, I would refer my hon. Friend to the reply given to a question from the hon. Member for St. Helens, South (Mr. Bermingham) on 6 December at columns280–1. I shall reply as soon as possible to the other parts of the question.