§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list for each year since 1970 the number of (a) women and (b) men who have been sent to prison for first offences in respect of (i) shoplifting and (ii) domestic violence, respectively.
§ Mr. MellorThe information on sentencing by type of offence published annually in "Criminal Statistics, England and Wales" (Chapter 7 of the issue of 1983, Cmnd. 9349, and Supplementary Tables, Vol. 1, Tables S1.1(A)-(E) — magistrates' courts and Vol. 2, Tables S2.1(A)-(E) — the Crown Court) does not distinguish first offenders from other offenders; nor are offences of domestic violence distinguishable from other offences of violence against the person. The results of a special study on the sentencing of first offenders in 1977 were published in tables 10.4 to 10.6 of "Criminal Statistics, England and Wales, 1978" (Cmnd. 7670); corresponding information for other years could be provided only at disproportionate cost.