– in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 27 November 1947.
Mr Hector Hughes
, Aberdeen North
12:00,
27 November 1947
asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many murders known to the police in England and Wales during the last 20 years were committed by persons previously convicted of crime; and what proportion this bears to the total number of murders known to have been committed in that area during that period.
Mr James Ede
, South Shields
The available figures relate to persons of .18 years or over convicted of murder during the years 1926–46 inclusive. There were 452 such persons of whom 173 had previous convictions.
Mr Hector Hughes
, Aberdeen North
Would the Minister say whether these statistics show that, in the main, the habitual criminal seldom commits murder, and that, in the main, murders are committed by the inexperienced in life or by the deliberately depraved?
Mr James Ede
, South Shields
I am unable to say whether a person who has not been previously convicted is in that position because of his skill and experience.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
