HC Deb 05 November 1996 vol 284 cc434-5W
Mr. Alton

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many and what percentage of (i) burglaries, (ii) homicides, (iii) robberies, (iv) instances of violence against the person and (v) sexual offences involved the use of(a) a gun and (b) a knife or sharp instrument for (1) 1985, (2) 1995 and (3) the last year for which figures are available; [1655]

(2) how many offences involving the use of a knife there were in the last year for which figures are available. [1654]

Mr. Maclean

The following table shows the number of notifiable offences recorded by the police in England and Wales in which firearms were reported to have been used and as a percentage of all notifiable offences of that type:

Number of defendants prosecuted at magistrates' courts and convicted at all courts for offences involving carrying weapons
England and Wales1 1995
Offence description Prosecutions Convictions
Carrying article with blade or point in a public place [Criminal Justice Act 1988, Sec 139] 3,474 2,559
Carrying of offensive weapons2 without lawful authority or reasonable excuse in a public place [Prevention of Crime Act 1953, Sec 1] 5,215 3,190
1 Provisional.
2 May include a small number of offences involving truncheons etc.

Mr. Michael

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many crimes ended in a court conviction in England and Wales in(a) 1993, (b) 1994 and (c) 1995; [2229]

(2) how many crimes ended in a caution in England and Wales in (a) 1993, (b) 1994 and (c) 1995. [2230]

Mr. Maclean

Information readily available centrally on the number of offenders found guilty or cautioned in each of the years 1993, 1994 and 1995 is shown in the table.

Number of offenders found guilty at all courts or cautioned by type of offence 1993–951
England and Wales
Convicted Cautioned
Type of offence 1993 1994 11995 1993 1995 11994
Indictable 307,548 314,148 302,177 209,555 209,769 202,585
Summary non-motoring 453,079 454,731 2410,021 101,759 98,670 88,662
Summary motoring 664,651 638,814 2642,386 3 3 3
All offences 1,425,314 1,407,623 21,354,584 311,314 308,439 291,247
1 Provisional.
2 In 1995 it is estimated that there were shortfalls of 70,300 and 4,800 offenders convicted for certain summary non-motoring and summary motoring offences respectively.
3 Not applicable. Motoring offences may attract written warnings.

Mr. Michael

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many crimes were cleared up by the police in England and Wales in(a) 1993, (b) 1994 and (c) 1995. [2231]

Mr. Maclean

The information requested is given in the following table:

Number of recorded offences cleared up in England and Wales
Year Number of recorded offences cleared up
1993 1,328,155
1994 1,326.366
1995 1,276,875