asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will list the three police authority areas with the highest murder and attempted murder rates in each of the last three years;(2) if he will list in the

[pursuant to his reply, 26 February 1987, c. 346]: In cases of homicide it is not always possible in the absence of a court decision to distinguish between offences of murder, manslaughter and infanticide. Attempted murders are too few in number to enable reliable rates for police force areas to be calculated and so are not included in this reply. The only available figures for rape also include attempted rape and aiding or abetting a rape. The following table gives number of offences of homicide and rape recorded in police force areas and average rates of offences per 100,000 population per year for the years 1983 to 1985 combined. Rates for individual years would he based on small numbers of offences which are subject to wide variation and can be misleading. Numbers of offences recorded in police force areas are published annually by type of offence in "Criminal Statistics, England and Wales, Supplementary Tables" (table S3.1 in volume 3 for the issue for 1985).