Mr. Alan W. Williamsasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many arrests and convictions there have been in connection with the second homes arson campaign in Wales since 1978; and if he will give details.
§ Mr. Douglas HoggI understand from the chief constables concerned that the numbers of arrests and convictions in connection with the second homes arson campaign in Wales since 1978 are as follows:
612W
Police force area Arrests Convictions North Wales 19 19 Dyfed-Powys 17 0 Gwent 1 0 South Wales 0 0 TOTAL 37 19 total of notifiable offences recorded in each police force area are published annually in "Criminal Statistics, England and Wales, Supplementary Tables, Vol. 3" (table s.3.1 for each year from 1980 to 1985); figures for earlier years were given in the annual "Criminal Statistics" Command Paper. Numbers of offences of violence against the person and robbery (whether armed or not) recorded in 1986 in each force area are published in table 6 of Home Office statistical bulletin issue 4/87. The other information available is given in the following tables. In the absence of a court decision it is not possible to distinguish murder from other types of homicide.
Table 1. Notifiable offences of homicide and rape recorded by the police England and Wales, 1986 Number of offences Police force area Homicide Rape Metropolitan Police District 210 824 Other metropolitan police forces1 154 494 Other police forces 298 970 Total 662 2,288 1 Incorporates City of London, West Midlands, Merseyside, Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and Northumbria. The arrests in Dyfed-Powys and Gwent were the result of a single operation involving all police forces in Wales in 1980.
Mr. Alan W. Williamsasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many incidents there have been in the second homes arson campaign in each of the calendar years 1978 to 1987 in the following constituencies (a) Caernarfon, (b) Meirionnydd Nant Conwy, (c) Ynys Môn and (d) Carmarthen;
(2) how many incidents there have been in the second homes arson campaign in Wales in each of the calendar years 1978 to 1987.
§ Mr. Douglas HoggI understand from the chief constables of South Wales and Gwent that there have been no incidents in their police force areas during the period. I understand from the chief constables of North Wales and Dyfed-Powys that the number of incidents in their police force area were as follows: 613W
Numbers of incidents in connection with second homes arson campaign in Wales, 1979 to 1987 North Wales Year1 Caernarfon Meirionnydd Nant Conwy Ynys Môn Dyfed-Powys2 Total 1979 2 3 0 3 8 1980 7 9 6 10 32 1981 4 0 6 8 18 1982 6 1 1 0 8 1983 3 0 2 2 7 1984 1 4 0 2 7 1985 4 1 4 3 12 1986 10 2 0 1 13 1987 3 0 0 3 6 TOTAL 40 20 19 32 111 1 Figures for 1978 are not available. 2 Separate figures for Carmarthen are not readily available.