§ Mr. Sandysasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will give details of the improvement in the crime rate during the first six months of 1967.
§ Mr. Roy JenkinsIn London, during the first six months of this year, recorded crime was 4 per cent. down compared with the corresponding period last year. It was 2 per cent. down in Birmingham. 6 per cent. down in Hampshire and 8 per cent. down in Lancashire. In certain other areas the position was not so satisfactory, but in the country as a whole, during the first six months of this year, recorded crime increased by only 2 per cent. over the corresponding period of 1966, whereas the increase in the first six months of 1966 over the corresponding Period of 1965 was 7 per cent. Increases in the corresponding periods in the years 1959 to 1965 averaged 9 per cent. These figures clearly give no ground for complacency, but they give reasonable 527W grounds for hope that the steep rise in crime which has occurred every year since the mid-fifties may be flattening out.