§ Mr. FearnTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many offences of burglary were admitted to by those serving sentences in Prison Service establishments during(a) 1999 and (b) 2000. [152885]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeThe number of previous offences of burglary admitted by prisoners has not been collected centrally since 1 April 1999, when the counting rules for detections changed. The new counting rules provide more precise and rigorous criteria for securing a detection, with the underlying emphasis on the successful result of a police investigation. Detections secured through 'prison visits' were omitted under the new counting rules. The total number of burglaries in England and Wales which were cleared up by the police from 'prison visits' in the year ending March 1999 was 58,898, 32 per cent. of all detections of burglaries in that year.