7.
asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the number of unlawful killings in England and Wales in each of the years 1961 to 1970, inclusive.
I will, with permission, circulate in the OFFICIAL REPORT, a table giving figures for offences of murder, manslaughter, infanticide and child destruction known to the police in England and Wales.
While I am obviously unable to comment on the figures before I see them, may I ask my right hon. Friend to give the widest publicity to those statistics and the breakdown under the category of unlawful killings so that those arguing for or against more extreme punishment for these serious crimes may have a greater acceptance among the public?
I congratulate my hon. Friend on his reticence in supplementary questions. These are important matters. They are difficult figures to interpret sometimes, and I am anxious that they should be fully understood by and available to the public.
Murder (see note below) | Manslaughter
| Infanticide
| Child Destruction
| |||||
| 1961 | … | … | … | … | 147 | 105 | 13 | 1 |
| 1962 | … | … | … | … | 159 | 114 | 26 | 1 |
| 1963 | … | … | … | … | 153 | 135 | 19 | — |
| 1964 | … | … | … | … | 170 | 108 | 18 | 4 |
| 1965 | … | … | … | … | 171 | 134 | 20 | — |
| 1966 | … | … | … | … | 169 | 172 | 23 | — |
| 1967 | … | … | … | … | 200 | 193 | 19 | 1 |
| 1968 | … | … | … | … | 203 | 196 | 26 | 1 |
| 1969 | … | … | … | … | 182 | 188 | 22 | 7 |
| 1970 | … | … | … | … | 186 | 181 | 26 | — |
Note: The figures for murder are not those normally announced as "latest corrected" figures; for consistency with the figures for the other offences in the Table, account has not been taken of reductions resulting from court proceedings that took place after the year in which the murder became known to the police. Nor do the figures exclude any cases resulting in acquittal. | ||||||||