HC Deb 30 October 1985 vol 84 cc551-2W
Mr. Kilroy-Silk

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list (a) the recommendations

Police officers injured Civilians injured* Others injured Buildings destroyed Buildings damaged
1980
St. Paul's, Bristol 21 10 0 11 20
1981
Brixton (April) 409 49
Brixton (July) 40
Southall 105
Merseyside (including Toxteth) 781
Greater Manchester (including Moss Side) 32
1985
Handsworth 79 37 8 17 66
Brixton 93 31 0 0 114
Toxteth 36 27 0 0 3
Tottenham 163 17 1 1 16
*As reported to the police
All those recorded in this column were firemen
Information not readily available
║145 premises were damaged, some to destruction, on 11 April

Mr. Kilroy-Silk

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will call for reports from each chief constable as to all those incidents in 1985 in which petrol bombs were thrown at the police; and if he will indicate, in each case, the location of that disturbance, the apparent causes of it, the number of petrol bombs thrown, the injuries to police officers and civilians that were sustained, the arrests that were made and the charges that have been preferred.

Mr. Giles Shaw

Petrol bombs were thrown at police officers during the recent disturbances in Birmingham, Brixton, Peckham, Toxteth, Tottenham and Leicester but information relating to numbers, and injuries caused, is not available. Details of arrests and charges, and of other instances in which petrol bombs have been thrown in 1985, are not collated centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Mr. Kilroy-Silk

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department to what factors and causes he attributes the recent riots in British cities.

Mr. Giles Shaw

Hostility to the police, criminal opportunism and a general alienation from authority in areas with special social problems were among the factors contributing to the recent disorders.

and (b) the suggestions contained in the Scarman report, indicating in each case what action has been taken in response.

Mr. Giles Shaw

We shall place a paper in the Library as soon as possible.

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