§ Mr. DawsonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what reductions have been achieved in each category of crime in Lancaster and Wyre constituency since 1 May 1997. [145615]
§ Mr. Charles Clarke[holding answer 22 January 2001]: The Lancashire constabulary have provided information on the numbers of recorded crimes for this area for the years ending March 1997 and March 2000, which is given in the table. It should be noted that there was a change in counting rules for recorded crime on 1 April 1998, which means that direct comparisons cannot be made between data for before and after this date. Nationally, the change in counting rules impacted most on violence against the person (which, for example, now includes common assault and assault on a constable), fraud and forgery, and drug and other offences, the latter two of which are combined here as "other" offences. The numbers of recorded crimes in these three categories were inflated nationally by the change in counting rules by 118 per cent., 61 per cent. and 215 per cent. respectively. The change in counting rules resulted in an increase in overall recorded crime figures of 14 per cent. for England and Wales as a whole.
Lancaster and Wyre parliamentary constituency—recorded crime Year ending March 1997 (Number of offences) March 2000 (Number of offences) Percentage change Violence against the person 530 1,321 149 Sexual offences 106 74 -30 Robbery 84 112 33 Burglary 3,894 3,043 -22 Theft and handling 8,199 6,605 -19 Fraud and forgery 451 483 7 Criminal damage 1,950 3.218 65 Other offences 219 691 216 Total 15,433 15,547 1