§ Mr. WareingTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many convictions for criminal offences on Merseyside were made in each of the years 1978 to 1991 inclusive; how many crimes were reported on Merseyside in each of those years; and what percentage of the crimes reported the convictions constituted in each of those years.
§ Mr. John PattenInformation on convictions and cautions within police force areas is published annually in the Command Paper "Criminal statistics, England and Wales". Tables3(a), 7(a) and 35(a) of the 1978 edition, tables 3(a), 7(a) and 34(a) of the 1979 edition and tables S3.2(A), S3.4(A) and S3.7(A) of the supplementary tables volume 3 from 1980 to 1989 refer. The 1990 Command Paper has yet to be published but provisional figures show 49,000 convictions and 9,800 cautions for all offences in the Merseyside police force area. This information covers offenders and the convictions data records the principal offence only—that is, does not take into account
586Wadditional findings of guilt or offences taken into consideration. Court proceedings data for 1991 are not yet available.
Information on offences recorded by the police is also published annually in the Command Paper. Table 32 of the 1978 and 1979 editions, table 2.5 of the 1983 edition and table 2.4 of the 1989 edition refer. Figures for 1990 and 1991 are published in table 2 of "Home Office Statistical Bulletin" 2/92. Copies of all the publications referred to above are available in the Library.
Because of the different collection basis, it is not possible to compare statistics on offences recorded by the police with those on court proceedings.