§ 26. Mr. David NicholsonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what studies he has commissioned about the length of sentences for rape.
§ Mr. MacleanMy right hon. and learned Friend has commissioned no such studies. But information about the length of custodial sentences imposed for all indictable offences is published regularly in the series of Command Papers entitled "Criminal Statistics", copies of which are in the Library of the House. They show that virtually all persons convicted of rape offences—including attempted rape—are sentenced to immediate custody and that, excluding cases in which the court has imposed the maximum sentence of life imprisonment, the average sentence length, which was just over four years in 1985, rose to approximately six years in 1987 and has remained at that level ever since.
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