§ Lord Hyltonasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many reported cases of rape have been in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland in each of the last five years and how many prosecutions there have been in each jurisdiction (expressed as percentages of the estimated population over 16 years of age); and what was the conviction rate in each jurisdiction.
The Earl of CaithnessThe available information is given in the following table. The results of court proceedings one year do not necessarily relate to offences recorded by the police in that year. The number of recorded offences of rape in the three jurisdictions may vary according to the police view of what constitutes a rape and the willingness of victims to report offences.
For England and Wales, annual numbers of offences of rape recorded by the police were published most recently in Table 5 of Home Office Statistical Bulletin, Issue 4/86. Information on persons prosecuted and those found guilty of rape is published annually in Criminal Statistics, England and Wales—Supplementary Tables: Table S1.1(A) of Volume 1—Magistrates' Courts; and Tables S2.1(A) of Volume 2—The Crown Court, under offence classification 19.1; the 1985 volumes will be published shortly.
596WA
Table: Notifiable offences of rape(1) recorded by the police, persons prosecuted, persons found guilty, percentage convicted and number of prosecutions per million estimated population aged 17 and over(2)] Jurisdiction and year Offences recorded by the police Number tried Number found guilty Percentage convicted Numbers tried per million estimated population aged 17 and over England and Wales 1981 1,068 440 320 73 12 1982 1,336 548 402 73 14 1983 1,334 465 314 68 12 1984 1,433 465 334 72 12 1985 1,842(3) 577 430 75 15 Scotland 1981 170 64 40 63 16 1982 131 55 31 56 14 1983 139 52 30 58 13 1984 224(3) 43 20 47 11 1985 248(3) 43 20 47 11 Northern Ireland 51 11 8 73 10 1982 60 17 9 53 15 1983 52 16 13 81 14 1984 75 16 14 88 14 1985 75 16 10 63 14 (1) The figures for rape in England and Wales include some offences other than those under Section 1 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956, e.g. aiding and abetting and attempts. (2) The figures for Northern Ireland are based on the estimated population aged 15 and over. (3) Part of the increase in recorded offences of rape in these years is attributable to changes in recording practice, whereby an increasing proportion of the cases reported to the police are recorded as offences.