§ 7. Mrs. Clwydasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what are the most recent clear-up rates for each police force area in England and Wales for all recorded crimes.
§ Mr. MellorAs the answer is in the form of a table I will, with permission, circulate it in theOfficial Report. In 1986, the police cleared up:12 per cent. of all recorded notifiable offences in England and Wales.
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Ratio of notifiable offences1 recorded to notifiable offences cleared up by the police, 1986 England and Wales Percentages Avon and Somerset 29 Bedfordshire 29 Cambridgeshire 37 Cheshire 43 Cleveland 34 Cumbria 42 Derbyshire 48 Devon and Cornwall 40 Dorset 34 Durham 39 Essex 37 Gloucestershire 30 Greater Manchester 27 Hampshire 33 Hertfordshire 46 Humberside 30 Kent 34 Lancashire 45 Leicestershire 44 Lincolnshire 36 London, City of 13 Merseyside 37 Metropolitan Police 16 Norfolk 36 Northamptonshire 31 Northumbria 40 North Yorkshire 32 Nottinghamshire 33 South Yorkshire 43 Staffordshire 44 Suffolk 41 Surrey 34 Sussex 30 Thames Valley 35 Warwickshire 36 West Mercia 41
England and Wales Percentages West Midlands 29 West Yorkshire 38 Wiltshire 36 Dyfed-Powys 51 Gwent 50 North Wales 32 South Wales 39 England and Wales 32 1 Excluding offences of "other criminal damage" value £20 or under.
§ 27. Dr. McDonaldasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he is taking to improve the clear-up rate of crime in England and Wales.
§ Mr. Douglas HoggWe have taken steps to increase the resources in money, equipment and manpower available to the police; but it is for chief officers to take operational decisions about what proportion of their available resources should be devoted to the investigation of crime in general or of particular crimes.