§ Mr. YeoTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many criminal offences were reported in(a) England and (b) Wales in each of the last 10 years in areas defined as rural and urban. [136745]
§ Mr. Charles Clarke[holding answer 6 November 2000]: Details of crime reported to the police are not available. Figures of crimes recorded by the police are collected by police force area. These can include both urban and rural areas, and it is therefore not possible to give the figures requested for crime recorded by the police in rural and urban areas.
However, the British Crime Survey (BCS) does draw a distinction between rural and urban areas. As the sample size in Wales is insufficient to provide a reliable estimate for the area, the figures given are for England and Wales as a whole. The BCS asked about crime reported to the police but estimates of these over time in rural and other areas would also be insufficiently reliable. The figures are on a per capita basis for selected offences since 1991, and are as follows:
BCS incident rates 1991–99 for burglary, vehicle-related thefts and violent crime 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 Burglary incidents per 10,000 households Rural 368 481 468 429 343 Non-rural 781 976 938 859 662 Vehicle-related thefts per 10,000 vehicle owning households Rural 1,660 1,983 2,052 1,503 1,207 Non-rural 2,912 3,152 3,006 2,368 1,947 Violent crime incident rates per 10,000 adults Rural 396 511 621 597 462 Non-rural 739 1,017 1.108 887 876 Note:
For the purposes of BCS analyses, rural areas are identified by according ACORN—(A Classification of Residential Neighbourhoods) categories. ACORN classifies households according to the demographic, employment and housing characteristics of the surrounding neighbourhood. Rural areas are defined as those areas falling into Acorn types 1 to 9, and 27.
Source:
British Crime Survey 1992–2000
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