HC Deb 19 July 1990 vol 176 c670W
Mrs. Wise

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what are the police clear-up rates for(a) all murders and (b) murders of gay men for the two most recent years for which he has figures.

Mr. John Patten

In cases of homicide it is not possible in the absence of a court decision to distinguish between offences of murder, manslaughter and infanticide. In England and Wales in 1988 and 1989 the ratio of offences of homicide cleared up to offences of homicide recorded in the same years was 96 and 92 per cent. respectively. Some offences are recorded and cleared up in different years. Statistics of homicide recorded and cleared up in 1988 are published in table 2.8 "Criminal Statistics, England and Wales, 1988"—Cm. 847—and for 1989 in table 6 of "Home Office Statistical Bulletin 10/90". Records available centrally on the sexual status of homicide victims are incomplete. The available information shows six homosexual men to have been victims of homicide in 1988 and 1989; all these cases were cleared up.