§ Mr. AmessTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many men and women, respectively, have been proceeded against for procuring abortions under section 58 or 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, in each year since 1958;
269W(2) what was the percentage of those charged with procuring abortion under section 58 or 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 who pleaded guilty or not guilty in (a) a magistrates' courts, (b) Crown courts and in (i) England and Wales and (ii) the Basildon area in each year since 1958;
(3) what percentage of cases were heard in (a) magistrates' courts and (b) Crown courts in (i) England and Wales and (ii) the Basildon area concerning people on charges of procuring abortion under section 58 or 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861; and what percentage, for each court, was found guilty or not guilty for each year since 1958.
§ Mr. John PattenI refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Pembroke (Mr. Bennett) on 6 November 1987 at column904. Reliable information on plea is not available.
Details in respect of the Basildon area are not available, but the following table gives information available to the Home Department for Billericay petty sessional division and Chelmsford Crown court for 1986 and 1987. Comparable data for earlier years could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Defendants proceeded against and found guilty of offences under sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861
(as amended by the Abortion Act 1967)
England and Wales
Number of defendants 1986 1987 Males Females Males Females Billericay petty sessional division Proceeded against — — — — Found guilty — — — —
Convictions for reckless driving Number of offences 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 Petty sessional division of Billericay and Chelmsford Crown Court — — — 19 28 United Kingdom total1 6,200 6,200 6,000 5,800 5,800 1 These figures are rounded because the information for Northern Ireland relates only to findings of guilt where reckless driving was the principal offence. For England and Wales, and Scotland the figures include also non-principal offences.