Written question asked by James Brokenshire (Conservative) on Tuesday, 7 October 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 16 October 2008. It was answered by Alan Campbell (Labour) on Thursday, 16 October 2008 on behalf of the Home Office.

Homicide

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate she has made of the number of gang-related homicides in each of the last three years.

Answer: Available data were published in table 1.06 of ““Homicides, Firearm Offences and Intimate Violence 2005-06”” which was released as an internet-only Home Office Statistical Bulletin on 25 January 2007. At that time there were 10 homicides currently recorded under the apparent principal circumstance category of 'attributed to gang warfare, feud or faction fighting' for 2003-04, nine for 2004-05 and seven for 2005-06. However, with the introduction of a new database in March 2007, comparable data for 2006-07 are not available. It is hoped that figures for 2007-08 will be available after the next annual homicide chapter is published in January 2009.

Secondary information