§ Mr. ClaphamTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will estimate the number of people(a) injured and (b) killed as a result of crime in each of the last five years. [7118]
§ Mr. MichaelThe available information from the recorded crime statistics is given in the following table. With regard to persons injured, the figures given relate to the number of offences in certain categories of offences of violence against the person where the assumption is that an injury or threat to cause injury has occurred. Robbery has been included for the same reason. It is not possible to identify separately threats from the substantive offence. Where a person has been injured during the commission of another offence (i.e. a burglary) then, for recording purposes, the offence of violence usually takes precedence.
The British Crime Survey (BCS) gives an estimate for 1995 of the number of people injured in woundings, robberies and common assaults of 2,185,000. The equivalent figure for 1993 is 2,153,000. the numbers injured as a result of crime is much higher than those from offences recorded by the police because (i) not all offences are reported to the police, and (ii) they include common assaults (which as summary offences are not currently recorded by the police). The injuries covered by the BCS range from bruises/scratches to more severe injury. Common assaults involve only minor injuries. Because it is a survey of victims, the BCS does not cover people killed.