| Previous Section | Back to Table of Contents | Lords Hansard Home Page |
Lord Donaldson of Lymington asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether they will elaborate upon the number of convictions and length of sentences imposed by the Crown Court for burglary of a dwelling house set out in Figure 11 in Chapter 12 of Protecting the Public (Cm 3190) by stating the criteria adopted in selecting the sample of 949 offenders and further stating in relation to each of the four conviction categories (a) the number of offenders who were aged 17 or less, (b) the number of offenders who were aged more than 17 and less than 21, (c) how many of the offenders had previously been sentenced to immediate custody for this offence and (d) what were the shortest and longest sentences imposed.
Baroness Blatch: The sample on which Figure 11 in Chapter 12 is based covers all those convicted of indictable offences in England and Wales during five weeks of 1993 and 1994. In recent years such samples have been drawn regularly and the results published in the annual volume Criminal Statistics, England and Wales. The particular weeks selected are chosen to give good coverage of the year as a whole.
The information requested for each of the four conviction categories is given in the table below.
| First conviction | Second conviction | Third or subsequent conviction | Seventh or subsequent conviction | |
| Total offenders | 447 | 197 | 305 | 43 |
| (a) Number aged 17 or less | 20 | 14 | 11 | 1 |
| (b) Number aged more than 17 and less than 21 | 156 | 61 | 69 | 3 |
| (c) Number previously sentenced to immediate custody(5) for an offence of burglary of a dwelling | n/a | 84 | 245 | 43 |
| (d) Shortest and longest custodial sentences imposed (months) | 1 and 84 | 2 and 120 | 6 and 120 | 6 and 42 |
(3) Based on a sample of 949 offenders--all those convicted of burglary of a dwelling at the Crown Court in five weeks of 1993 and 1994.
(4) An offender who is convicted of several offences of burglary at the same court appearance is counted as having only one conviction at that court appearance.
(5) Previous custodial sentences may have been imposed either by the Crown Court or by magistrates' courts.
END OF W/A 7 MAY 1996