HC Deb 20 February 1992 vol 204 cc266-7W
Mr. Cohen

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what has been the increase in reported crime since 1979.

Mr. John Patten

The available information relates to recorded crime. Figures for 1979 to 1989 are published in table 2.2 of "Criminal Statistics, England and Wales, 1989" and figures for 1990 are published in table 3 of Home Office Statistical Bulletin 13/91. Copies of these publications are available in the Library.

The British Crime Survey provides a measure of reported crime as experienced by adults in England and Wales. The most recent available results show that there was a 30 per cent. increase in offences measured by the survey between 1981 and 1987, as against a 41 per cent. increase in comparable recorded offences.