HC Deb 18 November 2003 vol 413 cc819-20W
Mr. Oaten

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the proportion of offences related to the misuse of alcohol, broken down by offence category, in each of the last five years. [1392271]

Ms Blears

Questions in the British Crime Survey (BCS) ask victims of assault whether they think the perpetrator of the offence was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the incident or not.

Data are available from the 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2001–02 sweeps of the BCS. These are as follows:

Proportion of violent incidents that were alcohol related
1996 1998 2000 2001–02
Domestic 32 33 44 45
Acquaintance 45 44 36 51
Stranger 55 57 53 58
Mugging 17 15 17 19
All violence 41 41 40 47

The question of whether the perpetrator was under the influence of alcohol or not was not asked of other offences, as this question can only be asked when there is contact with the perpetrator.

Mr. Oaten

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the cost of alcohol-related crime in each of the last five years. [139228]

Ms Blears

As part of their work on developing an Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy for England, the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit published an Interim Analytical Report on 19 September 2003. This report indicated that the annual estimated costs of alcohol-related crime and public disorder were up to £7.3 billion. These estimates were prepared using specially commissioned research by the Strategy Unit. No previous estimates of the costs of alcohol-related crime have been made.

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