asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many homicides were made known to the police in the calendar year before the Bill to abolish capital punishment became law; and what was the comparable figure in the most recent year for which figures are available.

The number of offences initially recorded by the police as homicide is published annually in "Criminal Statistics, England and Wales"—table 4.1 of the volume for 1980, Cmnd. 8376; the provisional figure for 1981 is 559.