Violent Crime (Hansard, 23 January 1997)

§ 12. Mr. McAvoy
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the finding of the British crime survey regarding the proportion of adults who were victims of violent crime once or more during 1995. [10559]

§ Mr. Maclean
The 1996 British crime survey found that overall 5.2 per cent. of adults were victims of violent crime one or more times during 1995. That percentage includes woundings, robberies and domestic violence.

§ Mr. McAvoy
Are not those figures a shocking indictment of the Tories' record on crime prevention? They claim to belong to the party of law and order, but, during a 12-month period, one in 14 adults were mugged at least once, and very few of the offenders were caught. Does the Minister accept that a Government who are incapable of protecting citizens should go?

§ Mr. Maclean
The hon. Gentleman has not been paying attention to the substantial falls in crime over the 1069 past three years. We do not merely claim to be the party of law and order—we are the party of law and order, because we vote for law and order measures. If the hon. Gentlemen and the Labour party want to inherit that mantle, they had better start voting for such measures, rather than voting against them or abstaining.

Mr. Robert G. Hughes
Are not the reductions in crime, which are very welcome, a direct result of the measures taken by the Government to ensure that legal obstacles are swept aside, so that guilty people can be convicted? Are not criminals the only group who would welcome the election of a Labour Government, as they would know that a Labour Government would not lift a finger to remove other legal obstacles to imprisoning more criminals?

§ Mr. Maclean
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. As Chief Superintendent Brian Mackenzie said this week, criminals will not have been lifting their fingers but clapping with joy at the decision taken by Labour peers in another place. Over the past three years, under a Conservative Government, crime has decreased considerably, which is testimony to the record number of police constables that we now have.