§ Mrs. Clwydasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what has been the increase since 1978 in the number of crimes of violence committed against women and children.
§ Mr. MellorInformation on the age and sex of victims of crime is not regularly collected centrally except in respect of homicide. The only other information available relates to certain offences defined as being committed against women or children, such as rape or child destruction. Information on these offences is published annually in "Criminal Statistics, England and Wales" (tables 2.8 and 2.9 of the issue for 1984, Cmnd. 9621).
§ Mr. Ron Daviesasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he has any proposals to collect additional information about the number, age, sex and ethnic origins of victims of crime.
§ Mr. MellorWe have no current plans to increase the centrally collated information on victims beyond that supplied by the British crime survey, the regular collection of statistics on homicide and that available to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board; information from all these sources is published. However, we do intend to publish an analysis of data available from the 18 police forces which record the fullest information; and information about victims is collected in specific research studies when appropriate.