§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what targets he(a) has set and (b) plans to set for reducing the economic costs of crime. [159019]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeThe Public Service Agreement (PSA) for the Criminal Justice System commits Criminal Justice Departments to reduce the economic and social costs of crime by March 2004.
There are a wide range of economic and social costs associated with crime, not all of which are easy to measure, but the Criminal Justice Departments have jointly developed an indicator of the economic and social costs of crime as part of the PSA commitment. The methodology used to measure the economic and social cost of crime was published in a report in December 2000, "The economic and social costs of crime" (Home Office Research Study 217). This sets out clearly how the figures have been derived and estimates the total economic and social cost of crime to England and Wales in 1999–2000 to be £60 billion.
Work is ongoing to develop and improve the estimates as part of the process of monitoring progress in meeting this PSA commitment.