HC Deb 08 September 2004 vol 424 cc1264-5W
Mr. Woodward

To risk the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many reported incidents of race hate crimes there hive been in(a) St. Helens and (b) England and Wales, broken down by region in each year since 1997; and what percentage (i) were brought to court and (ii) resulted in a successful prosecution in each case. [186901]

Ms Blears

The available information relates to the number of racist incidents in each police force area in England and Wales from 1996–97 to 2002–03. This information is contained in Table 3.1 of the Section 95 publication "Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System—2003", a copy of which is available in the Library and also on the Home Office website. Table 3.2 of the same publication gives the number of racially or religiously aggravated offences recorded by the police by police force area for 2001–02 and 2002–03. Figures for earlier years are available in earlier versions of the Section 95 publication and on the website. Information on racist incidents is not available centrally for St. Helens.

Number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts for racially aggravated offences—England and Wales 1997 to 20021
1997 19982 1999
Court/region Proceeded against found guilty Proceeded against Found guilty Proceeded against Found guilty
Magistrates court
St. Helens3 4— 4— 9 3
Region
East 4— 4— 2 230 89
East Midlands 4— 4— 4 1 352 123
London 4— 4— 44 14 1,523 431
North East 4— 4— 1 1 109 34
North West 4— 4— 15 3 451 161
south East 4— 4— 2 1 248 87
South West 4— 4— 1 153 54
West Midlands 4— 4— 4 2 248 74
Yorkshire and the Humber 4— 4— 2 1 229 76
Welsh 4— 4— 8 4 272 95
England and Wales 4— 4— 83 27 3,815 1,224

2000 2001 2002
Court/region Proceeded against Found guilty Proceeded against Found guilty Proceeded against Found guilty
Magistrates court
St. Helens3 16 3 9 3 7 3
Region
East 408 153 567 170 542 200
East Midlands 621 289 621 307 692 297
London 2,073 686 1,657 557 1,684 611
North East 196 78 325 137 419 167
North West 919 354 1,424 532 1,323 527
south East 558 225 602 261 603 260
South West 402 137 454 170 442 195
West Midlands 954 356 1,444 504 1,392 527
Yorkshire and the Humber 456 168 654 237 633 269
Welsh 470 170 540 207 424 187
England and Wales 7,057 2,616 8,288 3,082 8,154 3,243
1 These data are on the all offence basis.
2 The Crime and Disorder Act 1988 introduced a series of new racially aggravated offences from 30 September 1988.
3 Found guilty includes those offenders found guilty at St. Helens magistrates court and the Crown Court where St. Helens was the committing court.
4 Not applicable.