§ Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many offences were recorded for procuring illegal abortions in each of the following years: 1965, 1970, 1975, 1980, 1982 and 1983; in how many of these cases prosecutions were proceeded with; and how many convictions resulted in each of those years.
§ Mr. MellorThe information requested is published annually in "Criminal Statistics, England and Wales" under offence classification 14; in the volume for 1983 statistics of offences recorded by the police are given in table 2.8 of Cmnd. 9349 and statistics of persons proceeded against and found guilty are given in Supplementary tables, vol. 1, table S1.1(A) for magistrates' courts and vol. 2, table S2.1(A) for the Crown court. Figures for the earlier years specified are given in the following table.
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Offences of procuring an illegal abortion recorded by the police, persons proceeded against and persons found guilty England and Wales Offences recorded by the police Persons proceeded against at magistrates' courts Persons found guilty at all courts 1965 184 61 60 1970 212 49 41 1975 14 1 1