§ Mr. Proctorasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish in the Official Report the statistics for 1983 which are currently available to him from the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis concerning the total recorded offences of robbery and other violent thefts, including those figures giving an ethnic breakdown of attacker and attacked; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. HurdIn 1983, 18,347 offences of robbery and other violent theft were recorded in the Metropolitan police district as compared with 18,763 in 1981 and 19,258 in 1982. It is important to present the ethnic breakdowns of such statistics in a balanced and8W considered way, as was done in the Home Office Statistical Bulletin "Crime statistics for the Metropolitan police district analysed by ethnic group" (Issue No. 22/83) which was published in November 1983. We intend that any future publication should be in the same form.