Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many parents have been (a) accused and (b) convicted of killing or assaulting their child or children in each of the last five years; and how many such children had been removed from their parents into the care system and subsequently returned.

The available information for homicides of children under 16 by their parents recorded by police in England and Wales is given in the table and is taken from the Home Office Homicide Index.

Data are based on the number of offenders whose court proceedings have been completed. Due to the time it can take for cases to pass through the criminal justice system, there is likely to be an increase in the number of people convicted of homicide for recent years when updated figures become available.

The Home Office hold data on assaults but from these date it is not possible to identify the relationship between the victim and the suspect.

The Home Office do not hold data on children in care. These are the responsibility of the Department for Education.

Table A: Number of suspects charged and convicted of homicide of a child under 16 where the suspect was a parent¹²³⁴ 2010/11 to 2014/15

1. Source: Homicide Index, Home Office

2. Police recorded crime data are not designated as National Statistics

3. As at 13 November 2015; figures are subject to revision as cases are dealt with by the police and by the courts, or as further information becomes available

4. Note that homicide cases recorded in more recent years may not yet have completed their court proceedings