asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will indicate the number of sexual assaults recorded by the Metropolitan police for each year since 1979, and subsequent clear-up rates.
Details of the numbers of sexual offences recorded by the Metropolitan police are published annually in "Criminal Statistics, England and Wales, Supplementary Tables" — volume 3, table S3.1 of the issues for 1980 and 1983—and for the latest year 1984 were published in Home Office Statistical Bulletin, issue 6/85—table 6. I understand from the Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis that for all sexual offences the numbers and percentages of recorded offences cleared up are as given in the following table:
| Notifiable sexual offences recorded by the Metropolitan Police which were cleared up* | ||
| Offences cleared up (Number) | Clear up rate (Percentage) | |
| 1979 | 1,420 | 52 |
| 1980 | 1,420 | 51 |
| 1981 | 1,240 | 47 |
| 1982 | 1,240 | 44 |
| 1983† | 1,450 | 52 |
| 1984† | 1,610 | 53 |
* Offences cleared up in one year may have been initially recorded in a previous year.
† Excludes for comparability offences of "gross indecency with a child".