§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent assessment he has made of whether the PSA target for the reduction in recorded burglary crime in households covered by burglary schemes will be met. [47407]
§ Mr. John Denham[holding answer 10 April 2002]: Following the latest spending review, our target for reducing burglary has been incorporated in a wider crime reduction Public Service Agreement (PSA) target:
"Reduce crime and the fear of crime; improve performance overall, including by reducing the gap between the highest crime, Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership areas and the best comparable areas; and reduce:
1486Wvehicle crime by 30 per cent. from 1998–99 to 2004;domestic burglary by 25 per cent. from 1998–99 to 2005;robbery in the 10 Street Crime Initiative areas by 14 per cent. from 1999–00 to 2005;and maintain that level.In the 12 months to March 2002, there was a reduction. of 9.1 per cent. in the numbers of recorded burglaries compared to March 1999. The introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard appears to have had some impact on the recording of domestic burglary.
The British Crime Surveys show that between 1999 and 2001, the estimated number of domestic burglaries in England and Wales (including those not reported to or recorded by the police) fell from 1.284 million in 1999 to 0.991 million in 2001—a reduction of 23 per cent.