HC Deb 30 November 1995 vol 267 c1325
12. Mrs. Anne Campbell

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the relationship between crime levels and unemployment. [1364]

Mr. Maclean

A wide range of research studies, including those conducted by my Department, have failed to uncover any consistent causal link between unemployment and crime.

Mrs. Campbell

There is no excuse for committing a crime—[HON. MEMBERS: "Hear, hear."]—but does the Minister consider that Government policies that produce high youth unemployment, inadequate youth training programmes and cuts in benefit for the under-25s create conditions in which crime and law breaking can thrive? Are not the Government's policies responsible for the continuing high level of crime?

Mr. Maclean

The admission in the first part of the hon. Lady's supplementary question will keep Alastair Campbell spin doctoring for the rest of this afternoon. If she does not want to believe Home Office research studies and studies from other independent researchers, perhaps she will believe the highly respected chief constable of Strathclyde who, last Saturday, poured cold water on her pet theories about unemployment and crime. If police chiefs throughout the country can see that, and we see it in our research studies, perhaps one day it will get through to the Opposition; but I am not hopeful.