§ Mr. Donald AndersonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many letters he has received since 1 May 1997(a) in favour of and (b) opposed to lowering the age of consent for homosexual acts to 16 years; and how many replies have been sent in a standard form. [64279]
§ Mr. BoatengSince 1 May 1997, the Home Office has received approximately 20,000 letters about lowering the homosexual age of consent to 16. Around 3,500 of these were letters to the Prime Minister.
No detailed records are kept of correspondents' views on this issue. However, the majority of those received following the failure of the amendment to lower the homosexual age of consent in the summer were in support of lowering the age of consent. The large majority of those received in the run up to the Queen's Speech in November were against lowering the age of consent.
In view of the large volume of correspondence on this one issue and in order to ensure that replies to the public are sent out as quickly as possible, it has been necessary to use a comprehensive response which makes clear the Government's position on this matter.