To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish the number and percentage of crimes that are unsolved in each police force for each year since 1979; and if he will make a statement on his assessment of the main reasons for such unsolved crimes.
The readily available information is the number and percentage of recorded crimes that were cleared up in each police force area in 1986–89. For 1986–88 the information is published in tables 2.18 and 2.19 of "Criminal statistics, England and Wales". For 1989 the information is given in the following table. Although there are many reasons why crimes are not solved, a major factor is likely to be inadequate information or evidence on which to base further inquiries.
| Notifiable offences recorded by the police which were cleared up by police force area | ||
| England and Wales 1989 | ||
| Police force area | Number cleared up | Percentage cleared up |
| Avon and Somerset | 32,135 | 33 |
| Bedfordshire | 13,592 | 34 |
| Cambridgeshire | 13,707 | 38 |
| Cheshire | 23,121 | 52 |
| Cleveland | 21,029 | 36 |
| Cumbria | 13,343 | 49 |
| Derbyshire | 16,621 | 37 |
| Devon and Cornwall | 26,848 | 36 |
| Dorset | 16,520 | 42 |
| Durham | 17,622 | 42 |
| Essex | 23,814 | 32 |
| Gloucestershire | 12,496 | 36 |
| Greater Manchester | 82,227 | 30 |
| Hampshire | 31,023 | 32 |
| Hertfordshire | 17,678 | 44 |
| Humberside | 31,073 | 35 |
| Kent | 25,350 | 32 |
| Lancashire | 31,011 | 40 |
| Leicestershire | 21,345 | 40 |
| Lincolnshire | 14,276 | 42 |
| London, City of | 1,424 | 20 |
| Merseyside | 57,670 | 45 |
Police force area
| Number cleared up
| Percentage cleared up
|
| Metropolitan Police District | 127,984 | 17 |
| Norfolk | 17,671 | 40 |
| Northamptonshire | 16,264 | 43 |
| Northumbria | 67,880 | 40 |
| North Yorkshire | 12,092 | 35 |
| Nottinghamshire | 35,607 | 35 |
| South Yorkshire | 39,222 | 43 |
| Staffordshire | 24,874 | 43 |
| Suffolk | 13,222 | 43 |
| Surrey | 10,944 | 33 |
| Sussex | 22,727 | 31 |
| Thames Valley | 39,142 | 33 |
| Warwickshire | 8,697 | 35 |
| West Mercia | 19,290 | 39 |
| West Midlands | 87,225 | 39 |