HC Deb 29 February 2000 vol 345 cc202-3W
Mr. Robertson

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many politically motivated offences have been committed by(a) Republican and (b) Loyalist groups since Good Friday 1999; if he will break the numbers down into categories of offences; and if he will make a statement. [109555]

Mr. Ingram

The following table shows the number of security related offences recorded since 2 April 1999. It is not possible to answer the question with the detail requested because of the difficulty in distinguishing between a security related and a non security related offence1.

By
Loyalist Republican Total
Deaths 3 3 6
Shooting incidents n/a n/a 290
Bombing incidents n/a n/a 261
Casualties as a result of Paramilitary style attacks
Shootings 37 16 53
Assaults 59 26 85
1 A bank robbery is a criminal offence and will be recorded as such but may be carried out with criminal or paramilitary motivation.
2 Attribution for these incidents is assessed by the police, and cannot be guaranteed. A single recorded shooting incident may lead to more than one casualty.