asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many pieces of pornographic and obscene literature were seized by the Metropolitan Police in 1975, 1977 and 1979, respectively; and what happened to this literature.

I understand from the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis that the available information is as follows:

ARTICLES SEIZED BY THE METROPOLITAN POLICE UNDER THE OBSCENE PUBLICATIONS ACT 1959
	Number of articles
Year	Total	Books, magazines and typescripts
1975	202,242	59,888
1977	375,484	346,878
1979	1,170,752	1,156,027

Articles ordered by the courts to be forfeited are destroyed; the rest are returned to their owners. The considerable increase in articles seized in 1979 reflects a policy decision by the Commissioner in 1978, taken in consultation with the Director of Public Prosecutions, to extend operations to British-produced magazines.